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AMERKMMUPEHSM 

AND 

THE ABOLTTION OF POVERTY 

BY 
ISADOR LADOFF 




Class 



Book 1 1 



Copyright^ - 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



AMERICAN PAUPERISM 



AND 

THE ABOLITION OF POVERTY 

BY 

ISADOR LADOFF 

M 

AUTHOR OF "THE PASSING OF CAPITALISM," ETC. 



WITH A SUPPLEMENT 



"JESUS OR MAMMON" 



BY 



^.FEIJX,, 



CHICAGO 

CHARLES H. KERR & COMPANY 

1904 



LISRARY r CONGRESS 
Two Cepies Received 

MAR 30 (904 

- , CepyrtgM E^try 

CLASS a XXc No. 

COPY S 
-4 






COPYRIGHT, 1904, 

BY 

CHARLES H. KERR & COMPANY 



JOHN P. M COINS 
PAINTER, BINDER 



198-1 88 OL ARK ST. 

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 






CONTENTS 



PAGE 

An Appeal to the Reader 5 

Pauperism and Poverty in the United States n 

The Children of Poverty in the United States. . 50 

Pennsylvania Child Labor 93 

The Causes of Poverty in the United States. . . .103 
The Industrial Evolution of the United States. 109 

The Abolition of Poverty 167 

SUPPLEMENT : Jesus or Mammon ? 217 



AMERICAN PAUPERISM 



AN APPEAL TO THE READER. 

You know that we live in an age of great 
prosperity ; that the United States exceeds Great 
Britain in the totals of her domestic export ; that 
the foreign business of the United States passes 
beyond two billion dollars; that her profits— 
that is, the excess of exports over imports — 
reaches more than four hundred and seventy-six 
million dollars. 

You know, in other words, that the United 
States is able to provide sufficient food, clothing 
and shelter, foreign and domestic goods for 
comfortable and even luxurious living for her 
people, and sells abroad goods at the rate of a 
million and a half dollars in cash for every work- 
ing day. 

You know that the United States has ceased to 
be a nation-debtor and has become a creditor- 
nation; that the bank clearings have increased 
immensely, while the number of receiverships 
steadily decline; that there never was such an 
expansion in the various manufacturing indus- 
tries ; that never before has so much money been 
in circulation in the country, either in volume or 
in per capita distribution ; that never before were 



6 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

the totals of the people's savings in the banks so 
enormous. 

You know that the United States grows about 
eighty per cent of the entire cotton crop of the 
world; that it is the greatest producer of wheat 
among all countries ; that we own about one-third 
of all the swine in the world; that we are the 
greatest cattle raisers among the nations. 

You know that of the food-staples, bread, meat, 
butter, milk, vegetables and fruits, we are the 
most extensive producers. 

You know that as a clothing producer America 
is abundantly able to clothe her population with- 
out any assistance from foreign nations ; that the 
United States' output of iron and steel products 
was in 1899 about forty per cent of the world's 
total ; that we are the greatest coal producers, fur- 
nishing more than one-third of the world's sup- 
ply; that the annual supply of our petroleum 
makes up one-half of the total output of the 
world. 

You know that the United States has the great- 
est mileage of railroads, the greatest amount of 
freight-transportation, the most extensive marine- 
traffic. 

You know, in short, that the economic growth 
and material development of the United States, 
the growth of wealth of the entire nation, has no 
precedent in the history of humanity. However, 
do you know who actually enjoys this marvelous 
material prosperity ? Do you know what price 
is paid for this prosperity and who foots up the 
bill? 

Do you know that a little less than one-half of 
the families of the United States are property- 
less ; that seven-eighths of the families hold no 



AN APPEAL TO THE READER. 7 

more than one-eighth of the national wealth, while 
one per cent of the families hold more than the 
remaining ninety-nine per cent? 

Do you know that the wealthiest ten per cent 
of American families receive approximately the 
same income as the remaining ninety per cent? 

Do you know that the average family's income 
from labor cannot be put higher than five hun- 
dred dollars in towns and three hundred dollars 
in the rural districts? As three-fifths live in 
rural districts, the average should be three hun- 
dred eighty dollars annually for all. 

Do you know T that more than five-sixths of the 
income of the wealthiest class is received by a 
hundred twenty-five thousand richest families, 
while less than one-half of the income of the 
working classes is received by the poorest 6,500,- 
000; in other words, that one per cent of our 
families receive nearly one-fifth? 

Do you know that in fact the smallest class 
of wealthy property owners receive from prop- 
erty alone as large an income as half of our peo- 
ple receive from property and labor? 

Do you know that the number of officially rec- 
ognised paupers in the United States is not less 
than three millions ; that the direct and indirect 
loss in money due to pauperism is conservatively 
estimated to reach at least one hundred million 
dollars annually ? 

Do you know that the State of New York, the 
richest state in the Union, carries the heaviest 
burden of pauperism, not merely proportional to 
its population? 

Do you know that the number of inmates in 
various charitable institutions of the State of 
New York reaches 300,000; while the total num- 



8 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

ber of persons relieved annually by these institu- 
tions reaches the figure of two and a half mil- 
lions ? 

Do you know that one in four of the entire 
tenement population of the city of New York 
(about 300,000 or 350,000) are treated free of 
charge annually by medical charitable institu- 
tions ? 

Do you know that in no city of the United 
States will the number of children supported at 
public expense compare in proportion to popu- 
lation with the number of those cared for in 
New York City ? 

Do you know that one person in every ten who 
dies in the City of New York is buried in Pot- 
ter's Field? 

Do you know that the increase of female and 
child-labor in the United States is quite pro- 
nounced in comparison with the increase of adult 
male labor? 

Do you know that child labor increased in a 
single decade more than two hundred per cent in 
the South? 

Do you know that nearly one-sixth of all the 
employees in the hard coal mines are children ? 

Do you know that the increase of child-labor 
in the iron and steel industry shows 216 per 
cent? 

Do you know that there are about seventeen 
hundred and fifty thousand children between the 
ages of ten and fifteen years employed in the 
mines and factories of the United States? 

Do you know that child-labor is employed to 
a very much greater extent in the North than 
in the South? 

Do you know that children are deformed, 



AN APPEAL TO THE READER. 9 

maimed, weakened and made diseased for life in 
many of the trades flourishing in every industrial 
community ? Do you hear the cry of the chil- 
dren: 

"How long," they say, "how long, oh cruel nation, 

Will you stand, to move the world, on a child's 
heart — 
Stifle down with a mailed heel its palpitation, 

And tread onward to your throne amid the mart? 
Our blood splashes upward, oh our tyrants, 

And your purple shows your path ;" 
But the child's sob curseth deeper in its silence 

Than the strong man in his wrath. 

Are you aware that child-labor is one of the 
bitterest and greatest tragedies of our commercial 
age? 

Do you know all that? If yes, what are you 
going to do about it? If not — is it not your sa- 
cred duty to investigate matters and to decide 
what to do about it ? 

Are you not responsible for the prevailing 
conditions as far as you fail to improve them to 
the extent of your abilities and as far as you 
help to perpetuate them ? 

The present book is an attempt at a sane, fair 
and impartial treatment of the most important 
social economic problems of our age from the 
highest ethical point of view, from the point of 
view of the true interests of the entire human 
race. We do not attack personalities or classes, 
who apparently at least are benefited by the pre- 
vailing abnormal conditions of social-economic 
life and strife. However, we analyse and con- 
demn social-economic institutions that accord- 
ing to our sincere conviction have outlived their 
utility. 



10 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

The fundamental thought of our book may 

he summarised in the following single sentence: 

"There is no crime but parasitism." 

To eliminate social-economic parasitism means 

to abolish the very root of all social economic 

evils. The poet says : 

/Truth is eternal, but her effluence, 
With endless change, is fitted to the hour; 
Her mirror is turned forward to reflect 
The promise of the future, not the past. 
He who would win the name of truly great 
Must understand his own age and the next, 
And make the present ready to fulfil 
Its prophecy, and with the future merge 
Gently and peacefully as wave with wave. 
The future works out great men's purposes : 
The present is enough for common souls, 
Who, never looking forward, are indeed 
Mere clay, wherein the footprints of their age 
Are petrified forever : better those 
Who lead the blind old giant by the hand 
From out the pathless desert where he gropes, 
And set him onward in his darksome way. 
I do not fear to follow out the truth 
Albeit along the precipice's edge. 
Let us speak plain : there is more force in names 
Than most men dream of; and a lie may keep 
Its throne a whole age longer, if it skulk 
Behind the shield of some fair seeming name. 
********** 

For men in earnest have no time to waste 
In patching fig-leaves for the naked truth." 



PAUPERISM AND POVERTY IN THE 
UNITED STATES. 

We have to distinguish between charity and 
mutual helpfulness. Under charity we under- 
stand the material assistance extended by the 
parasitic "higher" classes to the slum-proletari- 
ans. Charity is an artificial and vicious code, by 
which one class of people regulates a part of its 
conduct toward other classes, considered as some- 
thing lower than men, because the last happen to 
be poor. St. Crispinus used to steal leather from 
the rich in order to make shoes for the poor. 
The parasitic classes of our commercial civilisa- 
tion appropriate the lion's share of the results of 
the labor of the toiling masses and then sancti- 
moniously contribute an infinitesimal part of their 
ill-gotten w r ealth to the lowest dregs of the ex- 
ploited class. The ethics of such generosity is on 
a par with that of a highway robber w r ho, after 
having relieved his victim of his well-filled purse, 
returns a nickel for car-fare out of the spoil to the 
robbed persons. The idle rich indulge in giving 
alms because it tickles their vanity, because it 
hypnotises their guilty consciences and enhances 
the consciousness of their economic power. Char- 
ity is indeed a very convenient institution for the 
ruling plutocratic minority. It helps to keep the 
so-called lower classes in a state of slavish hu- 
mility and canine dependence on the bitter crumbs 
falling occasionally from the overladen tables of 
the "valiant possessor of the valuable." 

Besides this, methodical organised charity by 
II 



12 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

proxy saves the rich from disagreeable personal 
contact with the unsavory poor. Organised pri- 
vate charity allows the rich to treat professional 
beggars like criminals without appearing brutal. 
Organised private charity makes it possible to 
classify the poor people into two categories — one 
labeled worthy, and the other unworthy of sup- 
port. Charity this way helps to keep the irregu- 
lar reserve army of unemployed just on the brink 
of semi-starvation and in constant readiness to 
accept a proposed "job" on any terms, to act as 
strike-breakers in case of necessity, and, mainly, 
to press down the scale of wages for labor to the 
lowest possible level. These poor, namely, who, 
on one hand, still possess some class conscious- 
ness, or who are, on the other hand, too deeply 
demoralised to be relied upon by the employers of 
labor in times of industrial disturbances, are la- 
beled as unworthy of support. 

Quite a different moral aspect is presented by 
the unostentatious mutual helpfulness among the 
poor. Here the gift of a penny means actually 
that the giver has to deny himself something of 
the necessaries of life. 

Unfortunately, there is no way of ascertaining 
either the number benefited by or the amount ex- 
pended in mutual helpfulness of that kind. 

The New York Times (Nov. 19, 1902) esti- 
mates that in the State of New York alone there 
is spent annually on private charity not less than 
$20,000,000 by more than ten thousand organised 
private institutions. 

Public charity, so called, ought to be, by right, 
considered as belonging to the category of mu- 
tual helpfulness. Indeed all charitable state, city, 
and county institutions are maintained at the ex- 



PAUPERISM IN THE UNITED STATES. 13 

pense of the taxpayers ; and the wealth out of 
which taxes are, in the last instance, paid is pro- 
duced by the toiling masses, and not by the para- 
sitic classes, all outward appearances to the con- 
trary. And yet the stigma of "charity" remains 
attached to these institutions. In the public opin- 
ion every person applying for and getting aid 
from public charitable institutions is stamped 
a pauper. Only exceptional distress compels the 
respectable poor to apply for public charity. If 
we use data about public charity as an indication 
of poverty we shall not run the risk of exagger- 
ating the actual existing poverty, but rather of 
underestimating it. 

It must be stated however at the outset that 
even the data about public charity in the United 
States are rather fragmentary and incomplete. 

The following table will show the number of 
applicants for charity in 1891 : 

Per cent 
Appli- of pop- 
Cities. Population. cants, illation. 

New York City 1,515,301 2,836 0.18 

Boston 448,417 2,391 0.53 

Baltimore 434,439 2,250 0.51 

New Haven 81,298 551 0.67 

In other words, of each ten thousand inhabi- 
tants there were recognized paupers, eighteen in 
New York City, fifty-three in Boston, fifty-one in 
Baltimore and sixty-seven in Nezv Haven, 

The eleventh United States Census puts the 
number of paupers in alms-houses alone at 73,- 
045. This figure represents obviously only a 
small fraction of the actual number of paupers. 
Professor Ely and Mr. Chas. Kellog, secretary 
of the New York charity organization, both esti- 



14 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

mate the number of paupers in the United States 
at not less than three millions. (North American 
Review, April, 1891.) Professor Ely and Amos 
G. Warner both estimate that hundred millions of 
dollars annually is a conservative figure of the 
total direct and indirect pecuniary loss to the 
country on account of pauperism. Professor Ely- 
puts the direct expenditure of the United States 
on this account at twenty-five million dollars. 
From this sum the State of New York alone 
spends for charitable purposes thirteen million 
dollars per annum. 

In connection with these figures the following 
data of the eleventh census will be of interest. 

The true valuation of the total wealth of the 
United States was estimated at sixty-five mill- 
iards, thirty-seven millions, ninety-one thousand 
and hundred ninety-seven dollars. The true valu- 
ation of the total wealth of the State of New 
York was estimated at eight milliards, five hun- 
dred seventy-six millions, seven hundred one 
thousand and nine hundred ninety-one dollars. 
The wealth of the State of New York represents 
therefore about one-eighth of the total national 
wealth. The State of New York is therefore by 
far the richest State of the Union, having a true 
per capita valuation of one thousand four hun- 
dred thirty dollars while the true per capita 
valuation of the United States reaches only one 
thousand and thirty-six dollars. The State of 
New York, representing more than one-eighth of 
the entire wealth of the nation, carries about one- 
eighth of the burden of pauperism of the United 
States, a burden that is not nearly proportionate 
to its share in the population of the Union. 

As we shall devote considerable attention later 



PAUPERISM IN THE UNITED STATES. 1 5 

on to the distribution of wealth in the United 
States, we will leave the just related data 
of the census without further comment. We 
will, however, point out here that these data add 
a special significance to the data about pauper- 
ism and poverty in the State of New York. In 
1880 there zvere 66,203 inmates in almshouses in 
the United States, or one inmate, one recognized 
pauper to each 758 inhabitants. In 1890 there 
were (as we related above) 73,045 almshouse 
inmates or one pauper to every 857 inhabitants 
(Eleventh Census, bulletin 90, p. 3). The aver- 
age age of almshouse paupers in 1880 was 45.1 
years, while it was 51.03 years in 1890. This 
change was due to the removal of children pau- 
pers to special institutions. 

The New York State Board of Charities in its 
tenth annual report (table on pp. 99-107) fur- 
nishes data respecting 12,614 inmates of alms- 
houses. Of the total, 422 were born in the alms- 
houses and of others 1650 were admitted when 
less than ten years old. At the time of the ex- 
amination nearly 13 per cent were under ten 
years of age and nearly the same proportion was 
over seventy. The average time of previous de- 
pendence for all inmates amounted to 4.88 years. 
This gave a total of 61,595 years of almshouse 
care for the benefit of the persons examined. In 
all the poor-houses there were found a great 
number of inmates w 7 hose ancestors were pau- 
pers and who also had other relatives who were 
paupers. 

The State of New York consequently cared for 
about one-sixth of the total number of all 
officially recognized paupers in the Union, or one 
pauper to each 82.1 in 1890 — that means about 



i6 



AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 



ten times the average for the United States in 
general. The wealthiest State thus appears to 
have the greatest number of paupers in propor- 
tion to its inhabitants. The following is the num- 
ber of State paupers admitted into the alms- 
houses of New York each year since October, 
1873: 

Male. Female. Total. 

September, 1874 5U 50 563 

1875.... 566 88 654 

1876 514 119 633 

1877 707 165 872 

1878 930 190 1,120 

1879 1,326 261 1,587 

1880 1,023 320 1,343 

1881 1,046 327 1,373 

1882 1,024 368 1,392 

1883 1,033 393 1,426 

1884 1,378 514 1,892 

1885 1,409 439 1,848 

1886 1,252 354 1,606 

1887 1,247 370 1,617 

1888 1,317 348 1,665 

1889 1,369 388 1,757 

1890 1,133 307 i,440 

1891 1,026 339 1,365 

1892...' 1,095 272 1,367 

1893 1,057 349 1,406 

1894 1,490 484 1,974 

1895 1,669 502 2,171 

1896... 1,589 513 2,102 

1897 1,448 539 1,987 

1898 1,300 504 1,804 

1899 1,582 467 2,049 

30,043 8,970 39,013 

(XXXIII Report of the State Board of Chanties of 
the State of New York— VI, p. 972.) 

Mr. Byron M. Child in his paper, presented to 
the New York conference of charities and cor- 



PAUPERISM IN THE UNITED STATES. \*J 

rections held November 20-22, 1900, at Albany, 
gives the following brief review of the growth 
of organized charity in the State of New York. 
(XXXIV Report, pp. 85-95.) 

Thirty years ago the State Board of Charities 
reported that the counties of the State had ex- 
pended in 1870 "for support and relief" $1,330,- 
776.64 and the cities $1,265,050.41, besides which 
the state, cities and counties had appropriated 
$157,780.51 toward maintenance of twenty-nine 
hospitals, the total expenditures of which were 
$560,801.77. These hospitals treated 15,713 
beneficiary or charity patients. In addition the 
orphan asylums of the State were maintained at 
an expense of $2,531,915.88 of which $591,570.88 
came from public funds; 10,134 persons were in 
these asylums at the close of the year. The State 
supplemented its appropriations in this direction 
with a further gift of $50,000 for educational 
purposes. This is the substance of the statistics 
of that year. 

The institutions for the care of destitute adults 
are now of three classes: those maintained and 
controlled wholly by the public; those partly 
maintained by the public, but controlled by pri- 
vate corporations ; and those wholly maintained 
by private funds and under private control. In 
1895 there were 13,658 inmates in the alms- 
houses, exclusive of classified cases, besides 8,131 
aged and friendless persons elsewhere provided 
for; 1,100 disabled soldiers and sailors and 6,655 
hospital patients of the destitute class. To these 
should be added the 380 adult females in reforma- 
tories. 

In that year the inspector of charities reported 
the total expenditures as over nineteen millions 



l8 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

of dollars for all purposes — of which the State, 
counties and municipalities contributed nearly 
five million dollars — but these figures did not 
include the hospitals for insane. There were 
sixty- four homes for the aged and friendless, and 
they received $135,982.15 from the public treas- 
ury, their total expenditures being $1,292,663.60. 

During the same period $3,128,842.78 were 
spent for the support and care of the inmates of 
almshouses. In these institutions there were 
cared for in 1898, 7,119 persons, of whom 370 
were supported by public funds, and over 6,336 
by private funds. As many of the institutions 
failed to make reports, these figures are not com- 
plete. Reports show, however, that at least 755 
men and 684 women, in addition to those cared 
for the preceding year, were received into the 
institutions. 

During the same period 1,262 were discharged 
from the rolls for various causes. At the close of 
that year 2,648 men and 3,211 women, a total of 
5,857 inmates, remained in the institutions, and 
the expenditures were $1,832,625.82, so far as 
reported. 

For the following year, ending September 30, 
1890, there were in the homes for aged persons, 
and in the reformatories, 7,015. During the same 
period 82,974 persons had received relief in the 
almshouses of the State, and 6,853 had been in 
other State institutions. The total expenditures 
for all classes of adults in institutions repre- 
sented about the same sum expended the preced- 
ing year, forming a large portion of the grand 
total of $29,447,177.32 expended in the State for 
charities. Of this grand total $8,042,720.53 were 



PAUPERISM IN THE UNITED STATES. 19 

from public funds and $21,434,456.79 were dis- 
bursed from private treasuries. 

The statistics of 1899 show that our institu- 
tions caring for adults and subject to State su- 
pervision had in their charge a very large num- 
ber of persons, and that altogether were sup- 
ported by the people of the State a vast army of 
dependents of all kinds, over 300,000 strong. 

The year began with 32,249 adults under care, 
but to these have to be added the classified in- 
mates of the State institutions. 

In view of the general facts just related about 
public charity in the State and City of New York, 
it will be instructive to examine in detail some 
official reports of the New York State Board of 
Charities for recent years. 

The report of the Board of Charities of the 
State of New York for the year 1897, for in- 
stance, contains the following data of general 
interest : 

The real and personal property of all institu- 
tions, societies and associations reporting to the 
Board was estimated to be worth $103,384,- 
554.21, of this sum $77,455,064.20 were in real 
estate and $29,929,490.01 in personal property, 
divided among the various classes of charities as 
follows : 

State institutions $ 5450,953-68 

County alms-houses 2,993,930.00 

City and town alms-houses _ 6,842,000.00 

Charity organization societies 346,082.01 

Day nurseries 271,416.46 

Dispensaries _ 1,613,983.17 

Eleemosynary educational institutions . . 850,569.07 

Employment societies 171,217.76 

Fresh air charities 479)035-96" 

General out-door relief societies . , 2,274,544.49 



20 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

Homes for the aged 17,845,107.17 

Homes for the blind 244,400.00 

Homes for children 25,581,750.33 

Homes for discharged prisoners 161,997.78 

Homes, temporary, for men and boys . . 124,340.01 
Homes, temporary, for women and chil- 
dren 223,214.45 

Homes, temporary, for women and girls. 177,230.00 

Homes and hospitals for consumptives . . 583,000.00 

Homes and hospitals for convalescents . . 527,000.00 

Homes and hospitals for epileptics 120,000.00 

Homes and hospitals for incurables 1,611,855.60 

Homes and hospitals for inebriates 488,307.70 

Homes and missions for emigrants 2,441,600.00 

Hospitals 29,068,051.55 

Humane societies 6,600.00 

Legal aid societies 19,715.00 

Reformatories for children 165,578.13 

Reformatories for women and girls 1,618,172.24 

Relief for sick poor, societies for 335>5o8.oo 

School for deaf 1,224,691.65 

Total $103,384,554.21 

Commenting upon this report the New York 
Morning Sun's (August 7, 1898) remarks run 
as follows: 

"It is to be remembered that the Board's fig- 
ures do not include the large amount expended 
by the thousand of minor charitable organiza- 
tions, such as the King's Daughters, Ladies' Aid 
Societies, Helping Hand and sewing circles, nor 
the vast and incalculable assistance rendered 
through purely personal benefactions. Large as 
these figures of the report of the Board appear, 
there are various good reasons for believing that 
they are rather under than over-estimated of the 
value of property devoted to charitable uses in 
this State. The chief of these reasons is that 
charitable societies do not care to appear too 



PAUPERISM IN THE UNITED STATES. 21 

wealthy, especially when they derive support 
from donations of the charitable. 

The receipts of the institutions for the year 
aggregate $23,100,880.50, received from the fol- 
lowing sources : 

The State $ 1,527,231.06 

Counties 2,450,628.04 

Cities . 5,628,277.24 

Individuals for the support of inmates 1,292,852.65 

Legacies 860,437.27 

Membership fees 424,189.20 

Entertainments and benefits 394,744.23 

Donations and voluntary contributions . . . 2,632,440.14 

Interest and dividends 1,118,232.46 

Investments (Loans, bonds, stocks, etc.) . 1,184,133.26 

Money borrowed 1,422,047.80 

All other sources 2,356,526.23 

Total $23,100,880.50 

It will thus be seen that the aggregate amount 
of public funds granted for the relief of the poor 
through these institutions was much less than the 
aggregate amount received from private sources, 
the figures being respectively $9,606,136.34 from 
the State, counties and cities, as compared with 
$13,494,744.16 received through the medium of 
private benefactions. The total expenditures for 
the year amounted to $21,448,362.03, classified as 
follows : 

Indebtedness upon real estate (principal 

and interest)^ $ 721,325.29 

Other indebtedness 773,123.66 

Rent 151,209.12 

Salaries and wages 4,147,880.61 

Provisions and supplies 4,331,342.72 

Printing and stationery 128,214.06 

Clothing 616,421.00 

Fuel and light 850,339.65 

Medicine and medical supplies 49S>9°3- J 6 



22 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

Furniture, beds and bedding 328,404.11 

Ordinary repairs 534,881.31 

Insurance 102,909.40 

Buildings and improvements 3,263,315.00 

Interest on loans 84,855.27 

Investment 1,642,863.00 

Services of collections and soliciting funds 27,532.38 
General out-door relief to the poor with 

homes 226,860.68 

Meals and lodging for the homeless ..... 28,227.68 

Fresh air relief 20,185.29 

All other purposes 2,972,468.20 

Total $21,448,362.03" 

Quite remarkable is the amount of money spent 
on salaries and wages, an amount almost equal to 
the expenditure on provisions and supplies. The 
four millions of dollars spent on salaries and 
wages show that the officials of charitable insti- 
tutions absorb for their services about one-fifth 
of all the entire sum of expenditure on charities ; 
in other words, that it costs 19 cents in salaries 
and wages to spend each dollar of money. 

The number of inmates in the institutions sub- 
ject to the supervision of the Board was, in Octo- 
ber, 1897, 74,664. 

The New York Sun adds to these figures the 
following comments: "Large as these figures 
are, they do not of course begin to approach the 
statistics showing the total number of inmates 
supported some part of the year, for there is a 
continual movement of population in most of the 
institutions, especially in the hospitals, and the 
beneficiaries of the year number of course many 
more than those to be found in the census of any 
given date. The tables of the State Board show 
that the number of inmates received and cared 
for in the above mentioned classes of institutions 
during the past fiscal year aggregates 269,147. 



PAUPERISM IN THE UNITED STATES. 23 

"But these were by no means all that received 
charitable assistance, the tables showing that in 
the dispensaries of the State, most of them being 
in New York City, 1,523,699 persons were 
treated practically free of charge, the number of 
prescriptions dispensed being 2,257,075. Fur- 
ther than this, general out-door relief was given 
by superintendents and overseers of the poor re- 
lief societies, missions, and other charities to 
758,609 persons, making the number relieved by 
institutions {including hospitals and dispensa- 
ries), societies, associations and public officials 
aggregate 2,551,455. 

"It is not to be supposed by any means that 
these figures correctly represent the actual num- 
ber of individuals assisted during the year, for 
there must have been an unavoidable amount of 
duplication in the figures given, which cannot 
even be estimated. Notwithstanding this, it must 
be clearly apparent that uncommonly large num- 
bers of people of this State are more or less de- 
pendent upon charitable relief, and those well in- 
formed upon the subject are inclined to the be- 
lief that the unregistered and unreported charity 
which is bestowed by private benevolence will 
more than compensate for any duplications that 
may exist in the official figures." 

Such is the opinion of a great capitalistic paper 
of New York City. The report for 1897, just 
examined, is typical of all the rest of the reports 
of the Board of Charities for the following years, 
as we will see from the following data. The Sun 
then proceeds : 

"The receipts of the State institutions and sev- 
eral institutions under State control and private 
management for the year 1899 reached a total of 



24 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

$1,747,799.54. The expenditures of these insti- 
tutions for the same year were total $730,461.37. 
The number of tramps assisted was 19,073. The 
number of persons temporarily assisted was 118,- 
560. In almshouses were 16,160. The total 
number of supported and relieved was 134J20. 

"The number of dependents under institutional 
care in the State of New York, including the in- 
sane, on October 1, 1890, was 86,893. The num- 
ber of beneficiaries in charitable institutions, re- 
ceiving public moneys in the State of New York 
and subject to visitation by the Board of Chari- 
ties and Corrections, were in 1901, total, 61,997, 
among them 27,262 (or about 44 per cent) being 
children." 

The receipts of fourteen of the State charit- 
able institutions for the fiscal year ending Sep- 
tember, 1 90 1, including balance on hand at the 
beginning of the year ($91,506.71) amounted to 
$1,401,520.37. Their expenditures aggregated to 
$1,335,211.95, $919,894.73 being for mainte- 
nance, $384,370.96 for improvements. (Rept., 
p. 29.) The total number of beneficiaries was 
7,756, or about $118.07 per each inmate for 
maintenance alone. 

The schools and institutions under private 
management, but mainly supported by the State 
appropriations, had the following receipts for the 
fiscal year -ending September, 1901 : 

Cash on hand $ 43,907-52 

From public sources 685,623.92 

From private sources 210,78478 

Total receipts were 940,316.22 

Their expenditures aggregated 883,483.32 

The appropriations for maintenance and for 
extraordinary expenses by the legislature of 1901 



PAUPERISM IN THE UNITED STATES. 2$ 

to the various State institutions subject to the 
Board of Visitation and Inspection summed up 
to $1,175,900.59 for maintenance and $598,- 
851.87 for extraordinary expenses. 

The rate of payment to charitable institutions 
by the City of New York, unless otherwise spe- 
cially provided, are fixed for various classes of 
inmates as follows : 

Infants under two years, and in hospitals be- 
tween ages of two and five, 38 cents per day. 

Dependent children, two to sixteen years, $2 
per week. 

Delinquent children $110 per annum. 

Adult inmates of reformatories, committed by 
court, $110 per annum. 

Inmates of homes for fallen and friendless 
women, $110 per annum. 

Maternity cases, $18 per case. 

Homeless mothers and nursing infants, $12 
per month. , 

To hospitals for medical treatment, 80 cents 
per day. 

Total for charitable institutions, $2,776,714.12. 
(New York City Budget.) The expenditures of 
the State institutions for the fiscal year ended 
September, 1901, were itemized as follows: 

Total average expenditures for maintenance 

for fourteen institutions $1,080,967.34 

Total average of inmates for fourteen in- 
stitutions 429 

Average annual cost of support 276.51 

Average weekly cost of support 5.88 

Expended for salaries of officers, wages and 

labor 452,432.28 

Average annual cost per capita expendi- 
ture for salaries, management, etc 127.67 

— Rep., p. 37- 



26 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

The report of the State Board of Charities for 
1902 contains among others the following in- 
structive data. 

There were persons remaining in the institu- 
tions receiving public money, subject to the 
visitation and inspection of the State Board of 
Charities, at the close of the fiscal years from 
1898 to 1902 inclusive : 

In 1898 62,215 

In 1899 61,570 

In 1900 60,637 

In 1901 61,461 

In 1902 60,804 

Fourteen of the State charitable institutions 
are subject to the visitation and inspection of the 
Board. 

The receipts of these institutions for the fiscal 
year ending September 30, 1902, including bal- 
ance on hand at the beginning of the year ($66,- 
577.22), amounted to $1,374,886.21. Their ex- 
penditures aggregated $1,265,775.01. 

Private institutions receiving State appropria- 
tions had total receipts $1,060,497.63. Their ex- 
penditure aggregated $917,259.63 and the total 
number of their beneficiaries was 3,324, or about 
$275 for each beneficiary. (Rep., p. 32, 1902.) 

If the poor receiving so-called indoor relief 
in various public charities are hopeless, officially 
recognized paupers; the poor receiving outdoor 
relief have to be classified as an intermediary 
class between the paupers and respectable poor. 
The poor receiving out-door relief, especially 
those who receive it only temporarily, under the 
stress of some exceptional calamity, are strug- 
gling violently against pauperism and make all 
possible efforts to keep up at least the appearance 
of a home of their own. 



PAUPERISM IN THE UNITED STATES. 2J 

We will take here the data of the report of the 
Board of Charities of the State of New York for 
the year 1902. 

According to the census of 1900 the popula- 
tion of the State of New York was 4,919,190, 
while the population of the City of New York 
was 3,437,202. (Rep., p. 27.) 

The number of poor persons receiving tempo- 
rary relief was in the State of New York 51,- 
873, while the number of poor persons receiving 
temporary relief in the City of New York was 
1,038. In other words, 0.03 per cent of the en- 
tire population of New York City and one of 
each 95 of the inhabitants of the State of New 
York received out-door relief in 1900. (Ibidem.) 

In 1901 the, number of poor persons receiving 
temporary relief in the City of New York was 
1,161, while in the State it was 48,365. 

In 1902 the number of poor persons receiving 
temporary relief in the City of New York is not 
given, while for the State of New York the fig- 
ure of 3 1 ,44 1 is given. 

The per capita expenditure for temporarily re- 
lieved in the City of New York in 1900 reached 
$38.75, in 1901 $37.24. 

Following are data about out-door relief in five 
leading States of the Union in 1893, 1892, 1891 
and 1889, respectively: 

Number Popu- 

Year. relieved. Expense. lation. 

New York State ..1892 131,439 $ 681,934.99 5,497,853 

Pennsylvania 1892 25,027 474,347.78 5,258,014 

Michigan 1889 39,115 420,829.13 2,093,889 

Ohio 1891 67,927 442,282.51 3,672,316 

Wisconsin 1892 4,492 148,671.45 1,686,880 

California 1893 304,790.00 1,208,136 

Total $2,472,875.86 19,917,082 



28 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

It is interesting to note that the two richest 
States in the Union, having approximately the 
same population, occupy the first two places in 
the table in respect to expenses on out-door relief. 

Each one of 45.6 inhabitants of the State of 
New York received outdoor relief in 1892. In 
the same year each one of 210 inhabitants of the 
State of Pennsylvania received outdoor relief. 
Pauperism was consequently about 4.6 stronger in 
New York than in Pennsylvania in i8p2. 

About outdoor relief Seth Low said in his re- 
port to the national conference of charities as 
follows : 

"Outdoor door relief, so-called, began in 
Brooklyn in 185 1 -1852. For the year ending 
July 31, 1852, the number of people helped was 
6,754, at a cost of $7,139.99. With some varia- 
tions this had grown in 1864 to 20,743 persons 
helped at a cost of $25,921.47. In 1865 the gen- 
eral demoralization grew worse uninterruptedly 
as a result of the war. In 1865, while only 1,500 
more people were helped than in 1864, it cost the 
county $72,708.97 against $25,921 in 1864, an in- 
crease of $46,000 in a single year. In 1877 help 
was given to 64,350 persons or nearly one-tenth 
of the population at an average cost of $114,- 
943.72. The total outlay for this period of six 
years by King's County is estimated in round 
numbers to have been, for outdoor relief, $689,- 
662.35. To such an item at last had grown the 
kindly and apparently harmless thing. The 
population of King's County is estimated in 
round numbers to have been in 1852, 150,000; in 
1864, 320,000; in 1877, 550,000. In 1875 the 
Commissioners of Charity employed paid visitors 
to investigate the cases. of applicants for relief, 



PAUPERISM IN THE UNITED STATES. 2g 

and it cost sixty dollars to distribute every dol- 
lar's worth of food and fuel. This was so mon- 
strous that public clamor compelled a change. 
In 1876 the visiting system was abandoned, and 
all the applicants were compelled to take an oath 
that they were paupers. As may be imagined, the 
result was horrible. In 1878 the outdoor relief 
appropriations were stopped." 

This seems to us a very curious page in the 
history of public charity in the United States. 

As an indication of extreme poverty next to 
indoor and outdoor public charity the data on 
medical charity deserves our attention. The fol- 
lowing table contains interesting figures as to the 
extent of medical charity in ten representative 
cities of the United States, according to Amos 
Warner : 

Population 

(census Per 

City. 1890). Fiscal year. Amount, capita. 

Brooklyn .... 806,343 1889-1890 $196,115.61 0.2432 

St. Louis .... 451,770 1890 140,773.43 0.3116 

Boston 448,477 1891 188,177.88 0.4195 

Baltimore 434,439 1890-1891 111,790.00 0.2593 

Cincinnati ... 296,908 1891 110,160.92 0.3710 

Buffalo 255,664 1890 67,650.00 0.2646 

Minneapolis .. 164,783 1890 17,842,00 0.1083 

St. Paul I33J56 1891 27,269.02 0.2074 

Indianapolis . 105,436 1890-1891 29,170.00 0.2767 

Washington . . 230,392 145,625.00 0.6320 

Total 3,327,323 $1,034,576.50 0.31693 

Dr. Savage estimates that in the City of New 
York there are between 300,000 and 350,000 pa- 
tients treated free of charge annually in the va- 
rious dispensaries, or one in each four of the 
entire tenement population or one in each 11.45 
of the entire population of the City of New York. 



30 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

A writer in the Evening Post puts the estimate 
at 628,286, from which he deducts 178,057 
duplications, leaving a net number of 452,529 dis- 
tinct individuals receiving dispensary aid during 
the year. According to this estimate one of each 
7.59 inhabitants of New York City receives free 
medical treatment. 

According to the same authority the charity 
organization investigated 1,500 cases selected out 
of 35,000 applicants. The answer was that about 
one-fourth were able to pay, but were paupers in 
spirit, another fourth had given wrong addresses 
(probably to avoid public notoriety), and the 
remaining half were recommended as worthy of 
medical treatment by reason of poverty. For an- 
other dispensary the same society made an in- 
vestigation of 212 cases and returned answer that 
55 were able to pay, 50 were not found at the 
addresses given, 18 information not conclusive, 
and 31 unable to pay. These referred cases were 
questionable out of 30,000 patients. (See Amos 
G. Warner's book on Charities.) 

In European countries extreme poverty leads 
to professional begging. Professional beggars 
are recognized as a class by themselves. No pri- 
vate home, street or church is closed to them. 
Public opinion considers it as quite proper for 
very poor people to make their livelihood by 
begging. Private charity prevails over public 
charity. Even if there is a law prohibiting beg- 
ging it remains mostly as a dead letter. 

In the United States public charity institu- 
tions are supposed to take care of all "worthy" 
poor and the "unworthy" poor are supposed to 
get along as well as they can without any aid 
whatever. Begging is considered as a crime. 



PAUPERISM IN THE UNITED STATES. 31 

And yet there are professional beggars in the 
United States, just as there are professional 
tramps and criminals. 

The following incidents and descriptions, 
taken from the New York Sun, will give us 
an idea what kind of a class American profes- 
sional beggars are and what methods they em- 
ploy in order to attain their purpose in New York 
City: 

"Detectives Hayes and Flynn of the Jefferson 
Market police court squad arrested two one- 
legged men beggars who were soliciting alms on 
Sixth avenue between 15th and 16th streets. One 
of them, who gave the name of William Smith, 
was recognized as a professional beggar, whose 
real name was Siebel. The other said that his 
name was George Allen. Both were young and 
well dressed and to all appearances perfectly able 
to work in spite of this lack of a limb apiece. 
Both said they lived at 12 Monroe street. In the 
last fortnight the same detectives have arrested 
three other beggars who gave the same address, 
and this fact led them to the suggestion to in- 
vestigate, with the result that they have discov- 
ered what they have long expected — that there 
exists in this city a syndicate of professional 
beggars which has its headquarters at the Mon- 
roe street house. A man named Burns, who lives 
in Brooklyn, is at the head of the syndicate. He 
employs constantly ten to fifteen men, cripples 
preferred, whom he stations along the great 
thoroughfares of New York. Five or six are 
constantly at work in the Sixth avenue shopping 
district. The men are young, as a rule, and are 
scrupulously clean and neat. No exhibition of 
sickening deformities is permitted by the boss 



32 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

and wounds are discouraged. All the men hand 
over a percentage of their proceeds to Burns. He 
on his part guarantees to care for them when they 
are sick, to free them when arrested, to provide 
them with a lodging and to direct their work. A 
special superintendent, or looker-out, not a crip- 
ple, is employed for the benefit of the shopping 
district squad. His duty consists in keeping an 
eye on the policemen and warning the beggars 
when a blue-coat is approaching. When the 
day's "work" is done the beggars enjoy life as 
much as any man, as is plain from an experience 
which Detective Hayes had in the last opera 
season. He happened to be standing near the 
opera house when a well appointed carriage drove 
up, the door was thrown open and out stepped 
Siebel, the professional, attired in immaculate 
evening dress. An artificial leg made it impossi- 
ble to discover that he was a cripple. He was ac- 
companied by a good-looking and stylishly 
dressed girl, whom he escorted into the building 
after telling the coachman to wait for them after 
the performance. Hayes said that he stood close 
to the man, and he knew him so well that a mis- 
take was impossible. 

Siebel is only 21 years old. He has been a 
handsome man, but just now his appearance is 
somewhat spoiled by a recent attack of typhoid 
fever. He always tells the policemen and court 
clerks that he is a clerk by profession, but he has 
been subsisting on alms for the last three years 
at least. 

Both prisoners pleaded guilty to begging when 
arraigned in court. Magistrate Cornell sent 
Siebel to the workhouse for two months. Allen, 
who is not so well known to the police, was sent 



PAUPERISM IN THE UNITED STATES. 33 

there for one month." (New York Morning 
Sun, June 22, 1879.) 

A beggars' trust is described as follows by the 
New York Herald : 

"The oyster knife, the symbol of the proverbial 
hatchet in the realm of 'panhandling/ is buried. 
Such was the information which was bruited 
about in the slums district, from the Burnt Rag, 
in Cherry Street, to Hell Kitchen, at 39th street 
and 10th avenue. The panhandler is the profes- 
sional fake beggar, who is seen on nearly every 
croner in the city. There are many bands of 
'panhandlers' at work in the metropolis, all the 
way from Harlem to the Battery, but there are 
six rings which afe particularly powerful. Of 
these Trixy's band, headquarters in Cherry 
street, in the vicinity of the Burnt Rag, a tene- 
ment house filled with 'panhandlers' and unfor- 
tunate women, is the most wide-awake of the 
lower quarter. Further up we enter the domin- 
ions of Big Meck's gang, whose headquarters are 
in James street, near Chatham Square. On the 
way thither we pass the 'Scratcher's Roost,' at 
Oak and James, where the most remarkable 
epistles to the millionaires and others are w r ritten, 
and also 'Blind Man's Alley,' which is the abode 
of scores of pencil venders, who are distributed 
about the city every morning, dressed in rags, and 
who pathetically hold out a little bunch of penny 
pencils as a subterfuge for begging. 

' 'Big Meck's' band is the most wide reaching 
in its influence, and comprises no less than forty 
young toughs who are compelled to pay tribute 
to their chief, or get thrown into the cold with a 
beating whenever they 'go broke,' or to the Is- 
land without help or legal advice and service 



34 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

when in trouble, or arrested on mere suspicion. 
'Big Meek' superintends the gang, and if a man 
is sent a hundred miles to cover a certain terri- 
tory he goes without question, and does his duty 
to his commander. 

"If Big Meek tells him that his make up as a 
'flash' or blister victim just discharged from the 
hospital is no good he becomes a 'mocker/ 
dressing up in castoff army or navy clothes, pur- 
chased in some 'goose alley' off West Broadway, 
and does the plaintive abandoned soldier act, 
prattling glibly of his charge up San Juan hill 
with 'our Teddy' at the front, or how he helped 
man the big gun on the Iowa when fighting Bob 
made Spanish the most popular language in 
Hades. 

To the East of the lower city are several bands 
known as 'goose gangs,' in other words, cast- 
away Hebrew toughs, who have rebelled against 
personal and rabbinical control, and Dutch bands, 
who are German toughs preying upon their own 
people. These with the Guinny gangs, of the 
Mulberry district, are not on the same level with 
the superior toughs ruled over by such gutter 
czars as 'Blackey,' ruler of the Flatiron gang, in 
Forsyth street, or 'Big Meek' of Chatham Square, 
'Trixy' of the 'Burned Rag,' and 'Omaha Tom' 
of the 'Dock gang' in West street. 

"These have long regarded one another with 
something of awe, rivals in a way, and now, for 
the first time, they have come together in con- 
ference and settled some differences of territorial 
rights whereby the smaller bands can be frozen 
out, or, rather, beaten out of competition en- 
tirely. 

"Whereas most of these 'panhandlers' are 



PAUPERISM IN THE UNITED STATES. 35 

armed day and night. The favorite weapon is 
one that shields them from the suppressive meas- 
ures of the police — a common oyster-knife, made 
of the steel of an old file. This is nothing more 
than a dagger, often very sharp. 

"There is then a 'panhandler trust/ 

"The leader of each band keeps in touch with 
the political leader of the ward, being a very 
valuable factor about a week before election. 

"This was the observation of one of the 'pan- 
handler chiefs' to the Herald's representative at 
parting in Stratton street: 'Luk at dose greasy 
whiskered geese/ he said, contemptuously, point- 
ing up to the three floors of sweat shops one 
above another, out of whose windows came the 
sounds of whirring machines, and through them 
could be seen bearded slaves of toil, with the lit- 
tle round butterdish caps over grey hairs, bent 
low over their work. 'Lukat'em. Dey works like 
dat for eighteen hours a day. I sees 'em as de 
sun jus' comes up over de house tops, when I am 
turning in after a night's work wid de gang ; an' I 
sees 'em shut up at night because of the more 
light, wid pants at $1.20 a dozen fer making, dey 
turns out fifteen pair. Wid no more work in a 
month den dey do in a minute, I turns me out a 
clean fifty, I do. Well, dat's wot yer gets fer 
having brains, dat is, see ?' " 

How characteristic appears to us this attitude 
of mind of the parasite on the lowest stage 
of social life of parasitism in general. The so- 
cial parasite of the upper ten thousand also de- 
spises all those who toil, and imagines himself 
to be of superior intellectual attainments. 

So far we have spoken about paupers receiv- 
ing in- and outdoor relief and professional beg- 



36 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

gars, a class of people hardened and demoralized 
by want, a class of people that either never had 
or have lost self esteem and self reliance, a class 
of people who never did struggle against poverty 
or gave up the struggle in despair. This class 
represents the lowest state of the proletariat, as 
a German would call it, "Das Lumpenproleta- 
riat/' or in literal translation the Ragged prole- 
tariat. 

The "Ragged proletariat/' however, represents 
only a small fraction of the poor class. 

Whilst many will rather die than enter an 
almshouse, many others suffer abject want, dire 
distress, without actually being penniless, and the 
great bulk of the residuum of the wage workers 
just contrive to drag out a more or less cheerless 
existence by means of intense and bitter drug- 
gery. 

Mr. Frederick Harrison stated a few years ago 
the following: 

"Ninety per cent of the actual producers of 
wealth have no home that they can call their own 
beyond the end of a week, have no bit of soil, 
or so much as a room that belongs to them ; have 
nothing of value of any kind except as much as 
will go in a cart; have the precarious chance of 
weekly wages which barely suffice to keep them 
in health ; are housed for the most part in places 
that no man thinks fit for his horse ; are separated 
by so narrow a margin from destruction that a 
month of bad trade, sickness or unexpected loss 
brings them face to face with hunger and pau- 
perism." (Report of the Industrial Remunera- 
tion Conference, 1886, p. 429.) This is true to 
a great extent in relation to the United States. 

The proletariat of the slums of Baltimore, Chi- 



PAUPERISM IN THE UNITED STATES. ^7 

cago, New York and Philadelphia is treated more 
or less extensively by the VII Special Report of 
the Commissioners of Labor, 1894. 

We will make here a few extracts from this 
report. 

The slum districts of sixteen principal cities of 
the United States, with a total population of 8,- 
037,458, comprehends at least 10 per cent. 

The population of the slums of Baltimore, Chi- 
cago, New York and Philadelphia, as shown by 
the Eleventh Census, June 1, 1890, and by the 
Census of the Department of Labor, which rep- 
resents the condition April 1, 1893, is as fol- 
lows: 

Eleventh April 1st. 
census. 1893. 

Baltimore 16,878 18,048 

Chicago 17^37 19,748 

New York 27,462 28,996 

Philadelphia 15,409 17,060 

Total 77,3^6 83,852 

The districts selected for canvassing by no 
means contained all the slum population of the 
cities in the investigation. According to the best 
estimates, the total slum population of Baltimore 
is about 25,000, of Chicago 162,000, of New York 
City 360,000, of Philadelphia 35,000. The slums 
of the city are in the dirty back streets, especially 
such streets as are inhabited by a squalid and 
criminal population, and they are low and dan- 
gerous neighborhoods. In these, as in any dis- 
trict, are to be found people of the higher re- 
spectability, people of means, living in good 
houses, but they form an exception. They have, 
however, been counted as inhabitants of the slum 
district by the report. 



38 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

The above named cities were selected because 
they represent great types of American cities. 

In the whole city of Baltimore the illiterates 
constitute 9.17 per cent of the native born popu- 
lation and 12.40 per cent of the foreign born, the 
percentage for both being 9.79 per cent. In the 
slum district of that city 8.13 per cent of the 
native born and 30.62 per cent of the foreign 
born are illiterate, while the percentage for both 
was 19.6 per cent. In the city of Chicago at 
large the illiterates constitute 0.81 per cent of the 
native born population and 8.31 per cent of the 
foreign born, the percentage of both being 4.63. 
But in the slum districts canvassed 5.64 per cent 
of the native born persons are illiterate and 33.86 
per cent of the foreign born, the percentage for 
both being 25.37. 

In New York the percentage of illiterates is 
1. 16 of the entire population and 14.06 of 
the foreign born, the percentage for both being 
7.69, while for the slum population the percentage 
of native born who were illiterate was 7.20 and of 
the foreign born 57.69, the percentage for both 
being 46.65. 

Philadelphia shows nearly as large a propor- 
tion of illiterates in the slum district as New York 
City, the figures for the whole population show- 
ing that 2.18 per cent of all native born persons 
are illiterate and 11.29 per cent of foreign born, 
the united percentage being 4.97. In the slum 
district of Philadelphia, however, 8.44 per cent 
of the native born persons and 46.61 per cent of 
the foreign born are illiterate, the percentage of 
the two classes being 37.07. 

The occupation of the residents of the slum 



PAUPERISM IN THE UNITED STATES. 39 

districts in the four cities named are as varied, 
probably, as in the cities at large. 

According to the Eleventh Census, the num- 
ber of persons to a dwelling in Baltimore was 
6.02, in Chicago 8.60, in New York 18.52, in 
Philadelphia 5.60. The averages in the slum dis- 
tricts are about the same for Baltimore and 
Philadelphia, there being in the former city 7.71 
persons to a dwelling, and in Philadelphia 7.34 
persons, but the slum population averages 15.51 
persons to each dwelling, and in New York 36.79 
persons. The table about the average size of 
families show for Baltimore 5.01, for Chicago 
4.94, for New York 4.84, and Philadelphia 5.10, 
the slum families being slightly larger than the 
size of families in other parts of the cities of 
Chicago, New York and Philadelphia. 

The following tables show the percentage of 
persons in the slums under different industrial 
groups : 

Of per- 
sons 
under 
each 
Males. Females, group, 
per per per 

Baltimore. cent. cent. cent. 

Agricultural, the fisheries and 

mining 82.8 17.1 0.4 

Professional 84.82 15. 0.62 

Domestic and personal ser- 
vices 82.92 17.08 11.26 

Trade and transportation 90.11 9.81 10.26 

Manufactures and mechanical 

industries 70.72 29.28 16.52 

Non-productive (Not gain- 
ful) 31.80 68.20 58.77 

Housewives' work 100 2.13 

Scholars and at work 75.00 25.00 0.02 



4Q 



AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 



Of per- 
sons 
under 
each 

Males. Females, group, 

per per per 

Chicago. cent. cent. cent. 

Agricultural, the fisheries and 
mining ioo 

Professional 89.42 10.58 

Domestic and personal ser- 
vices 84.23 15.77 

Trade and transportation .... 90.31 9.69 

Manufactures and mechanical 

industries 77-04 22.96 

Non-productive (Not gain- 
ful) . m 3332 66.68 

Housewives' work 100 

Scholars and at work 60.26 39-74 

New York. 

Agricultural, fisheries and 

mining 96.43 3.57 

Professional 90.80 9.20 

Domestic and personal ser- 
vices 88.52 1 1.48 

Trade and transportation .... 90.93 9.07 

Manufactures and mechanical 

industries 67.17 32.83 

Non-productive (Not gain- 
ful. 37-83 62.7 

Housewives' work 100 

Scholars and at work 52.44 49-56 

Philadelphia. 

Agriculture, fisheries and min- 
ing 92.86 7.14 

Professional 88.82 11.18 

Domestic and personal ser- 
vices 82.40 17.60 

Trade and transportation .... 91.40 8.52 

Manufacture and mechanical 

industries 77.60 22.40 

Non-productive (Not gain- 
ful) 33.71 66.29 

Housewives' work 100 

Scholars and at work 65.52 34-48 



0.05 
0-95 

14.29 
11.29 

14.69 

57-04 
0.89 
0.29 



0.1 

0.9 

13.46 
10.91 

15.04 

57.** 

2.19 

0.28 



0.08 
0.89 

n.56 
11.15 

17.27 

57-46 
1.42 
0.17 



PAUPERISM IN THE UNITED STATES. 41 

Glancing at the labor column, showing the 
proportion of persons falling under each indus- 
trial group, we see that in all the cities named 
the percentage of the non gainful group is the 
largest, reaching almost 60 per cent. The next 
largest is the group of manufacturing and me- 
chanical industries. Domestic and personal serv- 
vices follow then, leaving a very small percentage 
to other groups. 

The average earning per week was in Baltimore $8.65^ 

Chicago . 9.88J4 
New York 8.36 
Philadel- 
phia.... 8.68 
The average hours of work per week in Baltimore 64.2 

Chicago.. .60.94 
New York 62.55 
Philadel- 
phia 62.47 

A large class of people, however, work ninety 
or over hours per week; in Chicago, New York 
and Philadelphia .14 per cent of wage earners 
receive under $5.00 weekly, while the number of 
those earning more than $5 but under $10 
reached 37.59 per cent. The number of those 
earning $10 and more was only 24.62 per cent. 

Persons unemployed and average months un- 
employed was as follows : 

Per cent Months 

unemployed, unemployed. 

Baltimore 8.67 3.6 

Chicago 15.88 3.1 

New York 9.02 3.1 

Philadelphia 15. 19 2.9 

The average wages of all four of the cities 
investigated was $8.89 weekly. As on the 



42 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

average one-fourth of the year there is no em- 
ployment, we have to calculate only 39 weeks to 
the year. Consequently the average annual 
wages of inhabitants of slum districts amount to 
$346.71 only or $6.66 a week. This figure gains 
in silent eloquence if we take into consideration 
that 57.7 per cent of the inhabitants of the slums 
are engaged in nonproductive (not gainful) oc- 
cupations.* The magnificent income of $346.71 
has consequently to be stretched so as to cover 
the expenses of living of the sick, aged and chil- 
dren of the slums. 

Instructive are likewise the figures about the 
number and per cent of families and individuals 
by tenement to a house. 

In Baltimore there were an average of 1.19 
persons to a room. Chicago shows an average of 
1.37 persons to a room, New York City 1.88 and 
Philadelphia 1.47. The greatest number of tene- 
ments to a house varied from 13 in Baltimore 
to 29 in New York City, Philadelphia as high as 
15 and Chicago 24. The large number of fami- 
lies in Baltimore, Chicago and Philadelphia liv- 
ing in houses having one to five tenements is 
noticeable. New York is, however, an exception, 
showing a greater proportion of families living 
in houses having larger numbers of tenements to 
the house. Philadelphia showed 53.91 per cent of 
all families, comprising 60.97 per cent of all in- 
dividuals, living in houses of one tenement, that 
is, occupying the whole house. Baltimore fol- 
lows with 36.25 per cent of families, comprising 
43.12 per cent of all individuals. Chicago had 

*In 1870 in the United States only 32.4 per cent of 
the population were reported as pursuing gainful occu- 
pation. 



PAUPERISM IN THE UNITED STATES. 43 

9-53 P er cent °f families, comprising 11.73 per 
cent of individuals, and New York only 1.84 per 
cent of families comprising 7.96 per cent of indi- 
viduals. In New York and Chicago the number 
of persons to a dwelling in the slum district was 
almost double that found in the whole city. The 
figures for the slum districts are as follows : 

Baltimore 7.75, Chicago 15.51, New York 
36.79, and Philadelphia 7.34 persons to a dwell- 
ing. 

In Baltimore 13.16 per cent of all families live 
in tenements of one room with an average of 3.15 
persons to a room. In Chicago 5.87 per cent of 
all families live in one room, the average per- 
sons being 2.74. The per cent of families living 
in one room in New York was 5.62 and Philadel- 
phia 12.10, with an average number of persons 
to the room of 3.13 and 3. 11 respectively. 

The percentage of families living in two rooms 
in each of the four cities is shown to be as fol- 
lows : 

Baltimore 27.88 per cent, Chicago 19.14 per 
cent, New York 44.53 per cent, and Philadel- 
phia 19.41 per cent. 

The average persons to a room in these fami- 
lies were, in Baltimore 1.92 persons, in Chicago 
1.93, New York 2.14, and Philadelphia 1.99. 
The comparative number of families living in 
tenements of three and four is also large, the 
number of families living in tenements of over 
four rooms comprising but a small per cent of all 
families. 

In Baltimore slum districts but 7.35 per cent 
of all families, comprising only 9.51 per cent of 
the total population, have both rooms big. The 
pencentage of families and individuals not hav- 



44 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

ing both rooms big is 92.65 per cent and 90.79 
per cent of the houses investigated in New York 
and 82.28 per cent in Philadelphia. 

The greatest proportion of families having 
yards was in Philadelphia, the percentage being 
89.56. In New York and Baltimore slightly 
more than 84 per cent had yards, while in Chi- 
cago but 64.47 P er cent °f ^s families involved in 
the investigation had yards. 

A few extracts from Jacob Riis's "How the 
Other Half Lives"* will give color to the truthful 
but somewhat dry statistical data we have pre- 
sented : 

"In the tenements all the influences make for 
evil; because they are the hot beds of epidemic 
that carry death to the rich and poor alike; the 
nurseries of pauperism and crime that fill our 
jails and police courts ; that throw off a scum of 
forty thousand human wrecks to the island asy- 
lums and workhouses year by year; that turned 
out in the last eight years a round half million 
beggars to prey upon our charities ; that maintain 
a standing army of ten thousand tramps with all 
that that implies; because, above all, they taint 
the family life with deadly moral contagion. 

(p. 3.) 

"Neither legislation or charity can cover the 
ground. The greed of capital that wrought the 
evil must itself undo it, as far as it can be un- 
done, (p. 4.) 

"A tenement house is generally a brick build- 



*The latest publications of the same do not add any- 
thing essentially new to his fundamental work we are 
quoting here at some length. His "Ten Years' Battle" 
rather proves that the conditions depicted by him in 
his first book did not change materially. 



PAUPERISM IN THE UNITED STATES. 45 

ing from four to six stories high on the street, 
frequently with a store on the first floor, which, 
when used for the sale of liquor, has a side 
opening for the benefit of the inmates and to 
evade the Sunday law. Four families occupy 
each floor, and a set of rooms consists of one or 
two dark closets used as bedrooms, with a living 
room 12x10. The staircase is too often a dark 
well in the center of the house, and no direct 
thorough ventilation is possible, each family be- 
ing separated from the other by partitions. Fre- 
quently the rear of the lot is occupied by another 
building of three stories high with two families 
on a floor. A barrack downtown, where he has 
to live because he is poor, brings a third more 
rent than a decent flat house in Harlem. It no 
longer excites the attention, even passing atten- 
tion, when the sanitary police report 101 adults 
and 91 children in a Crosby street house, one of 
twins, built together. The children in the other 
numbers 89, a total of 180 children for the two 
tenements; or when a midnight inspection in 
Mulberry street unearths a hundred and fifty 
lodgers sleeping on the filthy floors in two build- 
ings. The tenements to-day in New York City 
are harboring three-fourths of its population, 
(pp. i8and 19.) 

"Nezv York's wage-earners have no other place 
to live in than in the tenements, more is the pity. 
They are truly poorer for having no better 
homes ; waxing poorer in purse as the exorbitant 
rent to which they are tied keeps rising (p. 23). 
The case that came to my notice in a Seventh 
Ward tenement was typical enough. There were 
nine in the family; husband, wife, grandmother 
and six children; honest hardworking Germans, 



46 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

scrupulously clean, but poor. All nine lived in 
two rooms, one about ten feet square that served 
as parlor, bedroom and eating room, the other a 
small hall room made into a kitchen. The rent 
was seven dollars and a half a month, more than 
a week's wages for the husband and father, who 
was the only breadwinner in the family. That 
day the mother had thrown herself out of the 
window and was carried up from the street 
dead. "She was discouraged," said some of the 
other women from the tenement, who had come 
in to look after the children while a messenger 
carried the news to the father at the shop. 

(p. 47). 

"According to the police figures, 4,974,025 
separate lodgings were furnished last year by 
these dormitories, or cheap lodging houses, be- 
tween two and three hundred in number, and add- 
ing the 147,634 lodgings furnished by the station 
houses, the total of the homeless army was 
5,121,659, an average of over fourteen thousand 
homeless men (deduct 69,111 women lodgers 
in the police station) for every night in the year. 
(p. 89). In the dull content of the life bred on 
the tenement house dead level there are few re- 
deeming features. There is nothing to calm ap- 
prehension for a society that has nothing better 
to offer its toilers. The patient efforts of the 
lives devoted to rendering the situation tolerable, 
and the very sources of these efforts, serve only 
to bring out in stronger contrast the general 
gloom of the picture, by showing how much 
farther they might have gone with half a chance. 
Go into any of the "respectable" tenement 
neighborhoods, be with and amongst its peo- 
ple until you understand their ways, their aims 



PAUPERISM IN THE UNITED STATES. 47 

and the quality of their ambitions, and unless you 
can content yourself with the Scriptural promise 
"that the poor we shall have always with us," or 
note the menagery view, that if fed, they have no 
cause of complaint, you shall come away agree- 
ing with me that, humanly speaking, life there 
does not seem worth living (p. 162). It is (the 
tenement of the slum districts) the frame in 
which are set days, weeks, months and years of 
unceasing toil, just able to fill the mouth and 
clothe the back. Such as it is, it is the world, and 
all of it, to which these weary workers return 
nightly to feed heart and brain after wearing out 
the body at the bench, or in the shop (164). 

"Every once in awhile a case of downright 
poverty and starvation gets into the newspaper 
and makes a sensation. But this is the exception. 
Were the whole truth known it would come home 
to the community with a shock that would rouse 
it to a more serious effort than the spasmodic 
undoing of its pursestrings. I am satisfied 
from my own observation that hundreds of men, 
women and children are every day slowly starv- 
ing to death in the tenements with my medical 
friends' complaint of improper nourishment. 
Within a single week I have had three cases of 
insanity, provoked directly by poverty and want 
(p. 171) * 



^Incidentally we may point out here, that the number 
of mentally unbalanced in the State of New York de- 
serves attention as an indication of the ever-increasing 
strain on the nervous system, caused by the economic 
struggle for existence. The annual census of the in- 
sane of New York, as presented by the State Board of 
Charities, shows an increase of 660 annually during 
the twelve years ending October 1, 1902, or a total of 



4& AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

"The truth is that pauperism grows as natur- 
ally as weeds in a garden lot" (p. 246). 

The following extract from the Chicago 
Tribune (1903) demonstrates that the conditions 
are not much different in Chicago than in New 
York: 

"As prosperity increases the hardships of 
poverty increase proportionally. Prosperity raises 
prices but does not raise wages of washerwomen 
and scrubwomen, of day laborers. The present 
winter promises to test the resources of Chicago's 
charities to their utmost. Added to the high 
prices demanded for food is the high price de- 
manded for coal." 

In these words, Ernest P. Bicknell, superin- 
tendent of the Chicago Bureau of Charities, 
summed up the situation in Chicago : "It is an odd 
situation," added he, "that compels those who 
can least afford it to pay the highest price for 
coal. The fact that the poor are forced to pur- 
chase their fuel by the basketful makes them 
bear the heaviest burden of the suffering result- 
ing from the famine in fuel." 

Such conditions make the existence of a large 
portion of the population of the United States 
precarious and dependent on the tender mercies 
of the parasitic classes without even the means 

7,920. At the beginning of the period the insane num- 
bered one to each 533 of the^ population and in 1892 
one to each 272> of the population. The increase of the 
population from 1880 to 1890 was 28 per cent, while 
the increase of the number of insane during the same 
period was 38 per cent. [Remark of the author.] In 
eight years 135,595 families in New York were regis- 
tered as asking or receiving charity. t For the five years 
past one person in every ten who died in this city was 
buried in the Potter's Held (p. 243). 



PAUPERISM IN THE UNITED STATES. 49 

of approaching complete life worthy of human 
beings. 

Is it to be wondered at, that the philosophy of 
Discontent and Pessimism is the philosophy of 
our age of mercantile civilization? 

This philosophy was aptly expressed by Mrs. 
Browning in her "Aurora Leigh" : 

"The world, look round — 
The world we're come to, late, is swollen hard, 
With perished generations and their sins ; 
The civiliser's spade grinds horribly 
On dead men's bones, and cannot turn up soil 
That's otherwise than fetid. All success 
Proves partial failure, all advance implies 
What's left behind; all triumph, something crushed 
At the chariot wheels; all government, some wrong; 
And rich men make the poor, who curse the rich, 
Who agonise together, rich and poor, 
Under and over, in the social spasm 
And crisis of the ages. Here's an age 
That makes its own vacation ; here we have stepped 
Across the bounds of time, here's nought to see, 
But just the rich man and just Lazarus, 
And both in torments, with a mediate gulf, 
Though not a hint of Abraham's bosom, Who, 
Being man and human, can stand calmly by 
And view these things, and never tease his soul 
For some great cure? No physic for this grief, 
In all the earth, and heavens too," 



THE CHILDREN OF POVERTY IN THE 
UNITED STATES. 

Each stage of culture and civilization has its 
own conception of right and wrong, virtue and 
vice, honor and disgrace, its own philosophy of 
life. This fact is in strict accord with the mate- 
rialistic or evolutionary conception of history. 
Even the myths of the ancient nations testify that 
hero-worship is subject to evolutionary changes. 
The gods of Babylonians, for instance, were 
ferocious human-flesh devourers, while the dei- 
ties of ancient Greece were drunkards and 
adulterers. The phenomenon of idealization of 
the human type at a given time and place into a 
supernatural being has for the student of .human 
destinies a peculiar significance. This phenome- 
non reflects the philosophy of the life of a nation. 
The stratification of society in distinct castes or 
classes, the so called higher and lower classes, is 
but another illustration of the interdependence 
existing between material conditions and human 
ideas in general. The aristocracy of Greece of 
the age of Pericles consisted of slaveholders, 
who devoted almost all their time to a harmo- 
nious development of mind and body. The sol- 
dier, the thinker, the orator, the artist, the states- 
man were the heroes of that age. 

Rome was ruled by a military caste, and its 
hero was a strenuous warrior, a conqueror of na- 
tions. Physical strength and endurance were 
considered as virtues (vita, vis, virtus, vir meant 
life, power, virtue, man). To be physically weak, 

SO 



THE CHILDREN OF POVERTY. 5 1 

to lack animal spirits, to be effeminate was con- 
sidered a degradation. The essentially military 
civilization of Rome, and Roman conception of 
human worth and worthlessness prevailed with 
but slight modifications during the early part of 
the middle ages. When, however, the power of 
the independent feudal nobility was absorbed by 
the kings, and the feudal system of land tenure 
turned into a stable economic system, the ideas 
about social distinctions underwent a transforma- 
tion. Heredity, blueblood, was esteemed higher 
than material wealth. A trader or merchant did 
not dare to dream about social equality with a 
nobleman. The growth of the middle or bour- 
geois-class introduced a sordid commercial so- 
cial ideal, a philosophy of life based on material 
w 7 ealth, a conception about human worth and 
worthlessness directly measurable by an eco- 
nomical status. Ethics were reduced to arithme- 
tics and religion degraded to worship of success. 
The aristocracy of our commercial age is a 
plutocracy. Neither the bravery of a soldier, nor 
a long line of ancestors, but the money bag, con- 
fers social distinction of the highest order. The 
most successful money maker is the hero of our 
time. It was a disgrace to be a physical weakling 
or a coward in ancient Rome. A low born mer- 
chant, however rich, could not raise his head in 
the presence of feudal snobs. In our time there 
is no greater disgrace than material poverty and 
want. In our parasitical civilization the most suc- 
cessful social parasite is the hero. The de- 
scendants of a moral leper like Jay Gould, are 
always before the public eye, as the descendants 
of some robber baron in the dark ages were, 
while the poor children of the poor, laborers de- 



52 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

frauded by the same Jay Gould, remain in con- 
temptuous obscurity. What does it matter how 
Jay Gould acquired his riches? Non olet! Money 
has no odor ! 

This modern spirit of success-worship and con- 
tempt of failure to attain economic success is 
probably the cause of the absence of reliable data 
about the number of the poor in the United 
States. 

The successful "captains of industry" are not 
over-anxious to make an exhibit of the victims 
of their exploits. On the other hand the "re- 
spectable poor" prefer rather to suffer all the 
horrors of starvation and dire want, than to 
make their indigence known to strangers. 

The student of the economic conditions of the 
so-called lower classes of the population of the 
United States is compelled to take recourse to the 
circumstantial evidences of poverty contained in 
the incomplete and fragmentary data of public 
charity statistics, reports about the life of peo- 
ple in the slums of great cities and similar docu- 
ments. 

Inadequate as these sources of information ap- 
pear, they however unroll before our eyes at least 
a part of the picture, a part by which we may 
form our more or less correct conception about 
the rest of the picture. Taking into consideration 
the above mentioned aversion of the respectable 
poor to publicity, we may safely conclude that 
pur sources of information may lead us to an 
underestimate of the number of the poor in the 
United States rather than to an over statement 
of facts. In our days of commercial culture and 
mercantile civilization poverty is considered as a 
disgrace and many a man and many a woman 



THE CHILDREN OF POVERTY. 53 

prefer to suffer the biting pangs of bitter poverty 
in silence rather than to make their indigence 
known to strangers. 

There is, however, one element of the poor un- 
tainted by any of the prejudices of a parasitic 
civilization, one element who do not make any 
secret of their destitution and want. This ele- 
ment is the innocent children that are dragged 
into pauperism and destitution by their parents. 

In the American experience the large number 
of the destitute children is striking. 

Out of 4,310 persons dealt with by the New 
York C. O. S. in 1891 40.8 per cent, or 1,762, 
were under 14 years of age. In Boston out of 
3,972 individuals dealt with 42.5 per cent were 
under fourteen years of age. In Buffalo out of 
2,515 individuals 48.3 per cent were under 14 
years of age. In Baltimore the per cent of those 
under 14 years of age drops to a little less than 

16 (15.8). 

On the whole it must be concluded that in the 
United States the leading cause of incipient pau- 
perism, as investigated by American charity or- 
ganization societies, is the weakness of children. 
New York and California have now about 250 
children of the dependent class to each thousand 
of their population. At the Denver conference 
of charities, Mr. Hart, of the Minnesota State 
Board of Charities and Corrections, estimated the 
number of dependent children in the United 
States to be 74,000. The expenditure for build- 
ing and "plant" used in taking care of these 
children he put at $40,000,000, and the annual 
expenditure for maintenance in all the forms $9,- 
500,000. About 9,000 persons were supposed to 
be employed as care-takers. There were 15,000 



54 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

inmates in juvenile reformatories costing $10,- 
000,000 and entailing an annual average charge 
for maintenance of $2,000,000. (These juvenile 
delinquents are of course children of the poor.) 
Read Edna Sheldrake's article in the World's 
Review (April 27, 1901), who draws the fol- 
lowing composite picture of a "juvenile delin- 
quent": "He is i2]/ 2 years old, one of seven 
people living in three rooms. These rooms are 
such as can be rented for $7.50 per month. 
Eight dollars, sixty cents per week pays the rent, 
buys fuel, food, clothing, pays the fee required 
in the parochial school, buys books, — in short, 
provides for all the needs required of the family. 
There is no place for healthy recreation. The 
house is crowded, dreary, uninviting. Cheap and 
pernicious museums with a placard outside, 
'Ladies not admitted' abound in the neighbor- 
hood." m 

The increase of the number of infants in the 
infant asylums as compared with the increase of 
the population during the years 1894-98 was as 
follows in Manhattan and the Bronx: 









Population 








Per 


in 








cent 


infant 


Normal 


Year. 


Population. 


increase. 


asylums. 


increase. 


1894... 


....1,809,353... 


.. .29.02. .. 


...2,747 


802.194 


i8qs... 


...1,879,195... 


...37.08... 


...2,708 


1023.624 


1896... 


...1,934,077... 


29.02. .. 


...2,738 


, 799496 


1897... 


...1,990,562... 


29.02. .. 


. . .2,920 


852.640 


1898... 


.. .2,048,830. .. 


...29.03... 


. . . 3,006 


, 86.756 



It appears for the years 1896 and 1898 the 
increase was under normal, while in 1897 ** was 
decidedly abnormal. The death rate of children 
in these asylums varies from 1.58 per cent 



THE CHILDREN OF POVERTY. 55 

(Hebrew Asylum) to 40.35 per cent (St. Jo- 
seph's Home for Babies), or an average of 21.75 
per cent. 

The census of these institutions on the 1st 
day of October each year from 1894 to 1898 was 
as follows: 

1894 12,594 

1895 ■ •■.-.. 12,192 

1896 11,267 

1897 j 10,899 

1898 11,610 

The following table shows the population of 
the borough of Bronx and Manhattan and also 
the population of children in institutions of the 
orphanage class from the same borough, and 
the rate of such children to each 1,000 of the 
general population : 

Rate of each 

child to each 

1,000 of the 

General Destitute general 

Years population. children. population. 

1894 1,809,353 12,594 6.95 

1895 1,879,195 12,192 6.48 

1896 1,934,077 11,267 5-82 

1897 1,990,562 10,899 5-47 

1898 2,048,830 11,610 5.67 

At the same time there were destitute infants : 

1894 2,748 1.51 

1895 2,708 1.44 

1896 2,738 1.41 

1897 2,920 1.46 

1898 3,006 1.46 

It may be instructive in connection with these 
figures to cast a cursory glance at the data about 
the population of institutions in receipt of pub- 



56 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

lie money but in private control from the close 
of the fiscal year ending September 30, 1896, to 
September 30, 1901 (Homes for Children) : 

September 30, 1896 (119 institutions) 27,769 

September 30, 1897 (121 institutions) 28,380 

September 30, 1898 (123 institutions) 29,967 

September 30, 1899 (123 institutions) 29,440 

September 30, 1900 (122 institutions) 28,649 

September 30, 1901 (121 institutions) 29,241 

The increase of the number of inmates for the 
year ending September 30, 1901, was 591 (Of- 
ficial Report Charity Association, p. 140). 

A peculiar feature of the New York State 
public charity is the marked tendency to build up 
private eleemosynary institutions of the State at 
the expense of public ones. One institution, 
officered by a religious order, received from the 
city government more than $260,000 per year. 
A list of over two hundred private institutions 
for orphaned children and the friendless in New 
York shows, that of their total revenue but 
$1,225,104.69 was derived from legacies, etc., 
while more than twice as much money, namely, 
$2,664,614.40, came from the taxpayers of the 
State, county and city. The following data fur- 
nished by Mrs. Josephine Shaw-Lowell proves 
that curious policy: 

Expenses for 
prisoners Expenses 

and paupers for paupers 
in public in private 
Years. Population, institutions, institutions. Total. 

1850 515,547 $ 421,882 $ 9,863 $ 431,745 

i860 813,669 746,549 128,850 875,399 

1870. 942,292 i,355,6i5 334,828 1,690,443 

1880 1,206,577 1,348,383 1,414,257 2,761,640 

1890 1,600,000 1,949,100 1,845,812 3,794,972 



THE CHILDREN OF POVERTY. 57 

Writing in 1891, Mrs. Josephine Shaw-Lowell 
said : "The point to which I wish to call atten- 
tion is that the city of New York continues, at 
the bidding of legislature, to pay without pro- 
test, year by year, increasing sums for the sup- 
port of public dependents under the care of per- 
sons in private institutions, many of whom, but 
for this provision, would probably not be de- 
pendent at all, while at the same time the public 
dependents, under the care of public officers in 
public institutions, are housed in buildings which 
are in danger of falling down, and are a discredit 
to the city/' 

For the year 1898 the population was 3,438,- 
899. For public prisoners and paupers $2,334,- 
456.49 was expended, and for paupers in private 
institutions $3,131,580.51 was expended. In 
view of this data, it will be interesting to state 
here the amount appropriated by other large 
cities of the United States to private institutions. 
According to statistics collected by the special 
committee of charities, organizations, and socie- 
ties, the data are as follows : 

Chicago $ 2,796.00 

Philadelphia 151,020.00 

St. Louis 22,579.30 

Boston none. 

Baltimore 227,350.00 

Cincinnati none. 

Cleveland none. 

New Orleans 30,1 10.00 

Pittsburg none. 

Washington 194,500.00 

Detroit 8,081.00 

Milwaukee none. 

Newark 7,500.00 

Jersey City none. 

Minneapolis 2,000.00 

New York City 3,131,580.51 



58 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

Only about 21 per cent of the cost of depend- 
ent children is borne by private benevolence in 
New York City. (Conference on care of De- 
pendent and Delinquent Children, New York, 
1893, pp. 164 and 165.) The city controller of 
New York, Hon. Bird S. Coler, says in his paper 
on Municipal Subsidies (Charities, Vol. Ill, p. 
16) : 

"Seventy institutions receive appropriations 
aggregating $350,000 in bulk, i. e., upon no basis 
of payment for actual services performed. An 
examination of the returns made by the institu- 
tions receiving appropriations in bulk from the 
city treasury shows that many of them are using 
the public funds for purposes not authorized by 
the constitution (i. e,, not 'for care and mainte- 
nance'). The reports of a large number of insti- 
tutions show the money annually obtained from 
the city carried forward wholly or in part as 
surplus. Different uses are made of this sur- 
plus, none of them, however, authorized by law, 
or warranted by a proper regard of the interests 
of the taxpayer. In some cases this surplus is 
used to pay off mortgage indebtedness, in others 
for permanent addition to buildings or for in- 
crease of investments and endowment. In one 
case the manager of an 1 institution frankly ex- 
plained a remarkable falling off in disbursements 
(so great that its charitable activities were al- 
most suspended) by stating that it was proposed 
by exercising great economy for a number of 
years to let the city annual appropriations ac- 
cumulate into a respectable building fund." 

That this subsidy system of public charities 
may cover a multitude of political sins of com- 
mission and omission seems to us obvious. There 



THE CHILDREN OF POVERTY. 59 

is nothing sacred to old party politicians. Mr. 
Elbridge T. Gerry, president of "The Society for 
the Prevention of Cruelty to Children/' in his 
defence of the society and its methods before 
Albert Stickney, appointed by Justice Beach to 
investigate the institution, admitted that Superin- 
tendent Jenkins had a contract for feeding chil- 
dren at twenty-five cents a meal. Mr. Jenkins 
gets an annual salary of $3,000, has a floor in 
the building of the society, rent free for his 
family, and lives in summer at Larchmont. Mr. 
Gerry admitted, also, that he in one year made 
$993 out of the contract for feeding the children, 
and in no year had to lose anything (New York 
Morning Journal, June 22, 1892). 

As we are not interested at present in the study 
of methods of public charity we will pass the 
foregoing statements without any further com- 
ment. 

Foundling hospitals are for the most part 
institutions where infants die. A death rate of 
97 per cent per annum for children under three 
years of age is not uncommon in some institu- 
tions. The cause of such mortality is due to 
neglect. From 1,439 children who died in 1899, 
1,123 w r ere inmates of infant asylums. Neglect 
of the children of the poor was the rule till 
1875. Children were kept together with adult 
paupers in alms-houses. In 1875 a law was 
passed (Children's Law) which forbade the keep- 
ing of children between the ages of two and six- 
teen years in the alms-houses. It further stipu- 
lated that the county should pay child's board 
in some special institution. Special acts were 
subsequently passed enabling certain large insti- 
tutions in New York to receive children at will 
and collect from the county two dollars per week 



6o AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

for the care of each. The above mentioned sub- 
sidy system then increased rapidly. In 1850 the 
amount appropriated for the poor cared for in 
private institutions was only $9,863. This amount 
grew by decades as follows : 

In i860, $128,850; in 1870, $334,828; in 1880, 
$1,414,257; in 1890, $1,845,870, and in 1900 for 
greater New York, $3,079,259. (Hon. Bird S. 
Coler in the Report of the National Conference 
of Charities, XXVIII.) 

In 1892 (October 31) there were in the city 
and county alms-houses of the State of New 
York 936 children. Beside this there were in 
the private institutions of the State, but supported 
chiefly by the cities and counties, an army of 
27,074 children. In these private institutions 
alone, there was one dependent child to each 270 
persons. The cost of the children to the tax- 
payers of New York State for the fiscal year 
ending September 30, 1892, was $2,019,342.94. 
(Tables 19-21 in XXV Report of New York 
Board of Charities and Corrections, 1891.) 

Only about twenty per cent of the dependent 
children of New York are orphans, and a very 
large number of them, as soon as they become 
old enough to be of use, are returned to their 
pauper relatives or friends, that is, the persons 
who had given them up to be paupers. (XXVIII 
Annual Report of New York State Board of 
Charities and Corrections.)* 

*From the 30,973 children received in 127 homes for 
children Sept. 30, 1899, 9,363 had parents living. Dur- 
ing the fiscal year ending September 30, 1901, there 
were discharged from the homes for children under 
private control, but in receipt of public money, 15,217 
children. From them 9,868 (64.8 per cent.) were 
turned over to relatives, 43 to friends and guardians, 
and 598 became self supporting. 



THE CHILDREN OF POVERTY. 6l 

"Child storage at public expense" has been 
suggested as an appropriate sign over the en- 
trance to the great New York caravansary for 
dependent children. Of the children supported 
by charity in New York one-seventh are sup- 
ported in private institutions at private expense 
(fourteen per cent of the total expenditure). 
Twenty-one per cent of the expense of caring for 
the dependent children is borne by private be- 
nevolence, while seventy-nine per cent is borne 
by the city. In New York one institution that 
received in 1892 $250,000 from the city, re- 
ceived from private sources less than $500, and 
in the case of twelve institutions the receipts 
from private sources were less than five per cent 
of the total expenditure. (American Charities, 
by Amos G. Warner.) 

The number of beneficiaries in institutions sub- 
ject to the supervision of the Board of Charities, 
Oct. 1, 1899, was 70,572. Among them were 
31,410, or about 44 per cent, dependent children. 

The following table will show the expense of 
the State of New York for dependent children 
from the year 1889 to 1899: 





Orphanage 


Infant 


Total 


Year. 


class. 


class. 


expense. 


1889 


$1,135,88646 


$430,969.3 


$1,566,85579 


1890 


1,075,872.50 


448,871.57 


1,524,479.47 


1891 


1,186,86410 


452,146.32 


1,639,010.42 


1892 


1,197,89846 


436,877.69 


i,639,775.i8 


1893 


1,195,002.29 


455,273.68 


1,650,275.97 


1894 


1,133,507.87 


447,633.57 


1,779,141.44 


1895 


1,180,564.97 


431,990.00 


1,612,515.06 


1896 


1,187,476.27 


440,503.19 


1,627,979.46 


1897 


i,257,939-84 


463,788.03 


1,721,727.87 


1898 


1,183,72146 


452,308.77 


1,636,030.23 


1899 


1,580,732.00 







62 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

Bird S. Coler, controller of the city of New 
York, states that of a total of $3,249,623.81, ap- 
propriated for private charities in 1899, no less 
than $2,216,773, or 69 per cent, was for the care 
of children and their support. In no city in the 
United States will the number of children sup- 
ported at public expense compare in proportion 
to population with the number of those cared for 
in New York City. In the city of New York, 
50,638 children are supported in private institu- 
tions at public expense. This is one child to 
every 68 of the estimated population of the city 

(3438377). 

Mr. C. Loring Brace, the secretary of the Chil- 
dren's Aid Society in the year 1901, stated in his 
report that during the last twelve months the 
expenditures of that organization amounted to no 
less than $543,109.07. The number of children 
aided during the last year was given by Mr. 
Brace in tabular form as follows : 

Industrial school 16,364 

Given relief in their homes 9,307 

In lodging houses 4,226 

In farm schools 645 

In charge of probation officers 300 

In summer homes 19,562 

Given a day's outing 1,781 

Treated by sick mission 1,486 

Placed in homes 476 

Placed in homes at wages 247 

Assisted to emigrate 712 

Total 55>io6 

{New York Times, November 26, 1902.) 

The statistical data we present here are suf- 
ficient to give an idea about the burden of pauper- 
ism weighing on the tender shoulders of the "poor 



THE CHILDREN OF POVERTY. 63 

children of the poor." The figures and facts 
presented by us are more eloquent than any 
amount of sentimental circumlocution. 

We would, however, not consider our presen- 
tation of the problem complete without a few 
extracts from the writings of a careful and con- 
scientious, but somewhat conservative and opti- 
mistic observer, Mr. Jacob A. Riis. His known 
conservatism and rather unwarranted optimism 
guarantee that his assertions are free from any 
exaggerations. He cannot by any means be 
accused of being a calamity-howler, or malcon- 
tent demagogue. 

About the children in the slums he says: "It 
is the home itself that constitutes their chief 
hardship. It is only when his years offer the 
boy an opportunity of escape to the street, that 
a ray of sunlight falls into his life. In his back 
yard or in his alley it seldom finds him out. 
Thenceforward most of his time is spent there, 
until the school or the shop claim him, but not 
in idleness. ("The Children of the Poor," p. 
20.) 

"There are still a lot of girls in Italian slums 
who drag as big loads as their brothers, but since 
the sewing machine found its way, with the 
sweater's mortgage, into the Italian slums also, 
little Antonia has been robbed to a large extent 
even of the poor freedom, and has taken her place 
among the wage-earners, when not on the school 
bench. Once taken, the place is here to keep for 
good. Sickness, unless it be mortal, is no excuse 
from the drudgery of the tenement. When re- 
cently, one little Italian girl, hardly yet in her 
teens, stayed away from her class in the Mott 
Street Industrial School so long that her teacher 



64 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

went to look her up, she found the child in high 
fever, in bed, sewing on coats, with swollen eyes, 
though hardly able to sit up (p. 21). Poverty 
and ignorance are fearful allies in the homes of 
the poor against defenceless childhood. Two 
cases which I encountered in the East Side tene- 
ments, in the summer of 1891, are without a 
doubt typical of very many. The one was the 
case of little Carmen, who last March died in the 
New York Hospital, where she had lain five long 
months, the special care of the Society for the 
Prevention of Cruelty to Children. She was 
found by the doctor lying in a little back room, 
up two flights, and looking upon a narrow back 
yard where it was always twilight. The room 
was filthy and close, and entirely devoid of furni- 
ture, with the exception of a rickety stool, a slop 
pail and a rusty old stove, one end of which was 
propped up with bricks. Carmen's bed was a 
board laid across the top of a barrel and a trunk 
set on end. I could not describe, if I would, the 
condition of the child when she was raised from 
the mess of straw and rags in which she lay. 
The sight unnerved even the nurse, who had seen 
little else but such scenes all summer. Loath- 
some bedsores had attacked the wasted little 
body, and in truth Carmen was more dead than 
alive (p. 23). I found boys, who ought to 
have been at school, picking bones and sorting 
rags. They said that they slept there (in the 
dumps). It was their home. They were chil- 
dren of the dump, literally. Two boys whom I 
found at the West Nineteenth Street dumps sort- 
ing bones were as bright lads as I have seen any- 
where; one was nine years old and the other 
was twelve. Filthy and ragged, they fitted well 



THE CHILDREN OF POVERTY. 65 

into their environment; even the pig I had en- 
countered at one of the East River dumps was 
much more respectable, as to appearance, of the 
lot — but were entirely undaunted by it. They 
scarcely remembered anything but the dump. 
Neither could read, of course. Further down 
the river I came upon one, seemingly not over 
fifteen, who assured me that he was twenty-one. 
The dumps had stunted him. He did not even 
know what a letter was. He had been there 
five years and garbage limited his mental as well 
as his physical horizon (p. 29). 

"It is a long time since I have heard a good 
honest laugh, a child's gleeful shout, in Ludlow 
Street. Children laugh because they are happy. 
They are not happy in Ludlow Street. Why 
should they be? Born to toil and trouble, they 
claim their heritage early and part with it late. 
There is work for the weakest hand, a step for 
the smallest feet in the vast tread-mill of these 
East Side houses. The average age at which 
these children leave school for good is rather 
below twelve than beyond it, by which time their 
work at home, helping their parents, has qualified 
them to earn wages that will more than pay for 
their keep. When, in the midnight hour, the 
noise of the sewing machine was stilled at last, 
I have gone the rounds of Ludlow and Hester 
and Essex streets, and counted often four and 
five and even six of the little ones in a single 
bed, sometimes a shake down on the board floor, 
often a pile of half-finished clothing brought 
home from the sweater, in the stuffy room of 
their tenement. In one I visited very lately, the 
only bed was occupied by the entire family lying 
lengthwise and crosswise, literally in layers, three 



66 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

children at the feet, all except a boy of ten or 
twelve for whom there was no room. He slept 
with his clothes on to keep him warm, in a pile 
of rags just inside the door (pp. 38-39). It 
was said of Napoleon that he shortened the aver- 
age stature of the Frenchman one inch by get- 
ting all the tall men killed in his wars. The 
tenement has done that for New York. My 
medical friend finds it a fact that poverty stunts 
the body, which he is pleased to call a beautiful 
provision of nature to prevent unnecessary suf- 
fering; there is less for poverty to perish then. 
It is a self-defence, he says, and he claims that 
the consensus of learned professional opinion is 
with him. It is the tenement that gives up the 
child to the street in tender years to find there 
the home it denied him. Its exorbitant rent robs 
him of the schooling that is his one chance to 
elude its grasp, by compelling his enrollment in 
the army of wage-workers before he has learned 
to read. Its alliance with the saloon guides his 
baby feet along the well-beaten path of the 
growler that completes his ruin. Its power to 
prevent and corrupt has always to be considered, 
its point of view always to be taken, to get the 
perspective in dealing with the poor, or the cart 
will seem to be forever getting before the horse 
in a way not to be understood" (p. 64). 

"But if the three R/s suffer neglect among the 
children of the poor, their lessons in the three 
D's — Dirt, Discomfort and Disease, that form 
the striking features of their environment — are 
early and thorough enough (p. 67). 

"Poverty and child-labor are yoke-fellows 
everywhere. Their union is perpetual, indissol- 
uble. The one begets the other. Need sets the 



THE CHILDREN OF POVERTY. 6? 

child to work when it should he at school and its 
labor breeds low wages, thus increasing the need. 
That the law 'prohibiting children under the age 
of fourteen to work in factories' has had the 
effect of greatly diminishing the number of child- 
workers I do not believe. The child of eleven at 
home and at the night school is fifteen in the 
factory as a matter of course. Nobody is de- 
ceived, but the perjury defeats the purpose of 
the law (pp. 92, 93). 

"I undertook a census of a number of the most 
crowded houses, in company with a policeman 
not in uniform. The outcome proved that, as I 
suspected, as regards those houses at least (and 
I have no doubt they were a fair sample of the 
rest), the law was practically inoperative. In 
nine tenements that were filled with home-work- 
ers we found five children at work, who owned 
that they were under age. Two were girls, nine 
years of^age. Two boys said they were thirteen. 
We found thirteen who swore that they were of 
age. In seven back-yard factories we found 63 
children, of whom five admitted being under age, 
while the rest, 45, seemed surely so. To the 
other thirteen we gave the benefit of the doubt, 
but I do not think they deserved it. All the 63 
w T ere to my mind certainly under fourteen, judg- 
ing not only from their size but from the whole 
appearance of the children. My subsequent ex- 
perience confirmed me fully in this belief (p. 

95). 

"A vast horde of fifty thousand children is 
growing up in this city (New York) whom our 
public schools do not and can not reach; if it 
reaches them at all it is w r ith the threat of jail. 
The mass of them is no doubt to be found in the 



68 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

shops and factories as I have shown. A large 
number peddle newspapers, or black boots. Still 
another contingent, much too large, does nothing 
but idle, in training for the penitentiary. As a 
matter of fact the record of average attendance 
shows that the public school per cent reaches 
little more than a third of all the children. And 
even those it does not hold long enough to do 
them the good that was intended. The superin- 
tendent of schools declares that the average at 
which the children leave school is twelve or a 
little over (p. 126). 

"Under the heading, 7 ust one of God's chil- 
dren/ one of the morning newspapers told the 
story last winter of a newsboy at the Brooklyn 
Bridge who fell in a fit with his bundle of papers 
under his arm, and was carried into the waiting 
room by the bridge police. The reporters asked 
the little dark-eyed woman at the bridge entrance 
which boy it was. 

"Little Maher it was," she answered. 

"Who takes care of him?" 

"Oh! no one but God," said she, "and he is 
too busy with other folks to give him much atten- 
tion." 

"Little Maher was the representative of a class 
that is happily growing smaller year by year. 
There are homeless children in New York. It 
is certain that we shall always have our full 
share. The menace of the Submerged Tenth has 
not been blotted out from the register of the 
Potter's field, and though the "twenty thousand 
poor children who would not have known that 
it was Christmas" but for the public notice to 
that effect, be a benevolent fiction, there are plenty 
whose brief lives have had little enough of the 



THE CHILDREN OF POVERTY. 69 

embodiment of Christmas cheer and good will 
in them to make the name seem like a bitter 
mockery (p. 247]. 

"It is in the lodging houses for homeless chil- 
dren one may study the homelessness that mocks 
the miles of brick walls which enclose New York's 
tenements, but not its homes. One may still 
hunt up by night waifs who make their beds in 
alleys and cellars and abandoned sheds. This 
last winter two stable fires that broke out in the 
middle of the night routed out little colonies of 
boys, who slept in the hay (p. 257). 

"What drove the outcast boy to the street? 
Drunkenness and brutality at home helped the 
tenement to do it, half the time. It drove his 
sister out to a life of shame, too, as likely as not. 
Four-fifths of the homeless children, perhaps, 
are outcasts, the rest homeless waifs (p. 259). 

"A bed in the street, in an old box or corner, is 
good enough for the ragamuffin who thinks the 
latitude of his tenement unhealthy, when the 
weather is warm. In winter the boys can curl 
up on the steam pipes in the newspaper offices 
that open their doors after midnight on secret 
purpose to let them in. When this fails, there 
is still the lodging house as a last resort (p. 
260)." 

These quotations will suffice to show a glimpse 
of the inferno to which the childhood of the poor 
is doomed. 

We may repeat here Tennyson's words in his 
"Locksley Hall Sixty Years After": 

"Is it well, that, while we range with science, glorying 

in time, 
City children soak and blacken soul and sense in city 

slime ? 



JO AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

There, among the glooming alleys Progress halts on 

palsied feet, 
Crime and hunger cast our maidens by the thousands on 

the street. 
There the master scrimps his haggard seamstress of 

her daily bread; 
There a single sordid attic holds the living and the 

dead. 
There the smoldering fire of fever creeps across the 

rotten floor, 
And the crowded couch of incest, in the warrens of the 

poor." 

Is it well ? naive question ! Is it natural, is it 
human, is it economic to let the children of the 
poor "soak and blacken soul and sense in city 
slime ?" 

In its solicitude for the preservation of the 
various living species, nature implanted in the 
heart of the animal the instinct of affection for 
offspring. Even the most ferocious beasts of 
prey, the tiger and the lion, are endowed with 
the instinct of love for their progeny. The higher 
an animal species stands on the ladder of evolu- 
tion, the longer is his period of helpless infancy, 
the better the care given it during that period. 

That the instinct of attachment to offspring 
reaches its highest stage of development in the 
human race is only natural. "Child" is the most 
pathetic word in the human vocabulary. The 
human heart does not know any more endear- 
ing sight than that of an infant in its touching 
helplessness and perfect abandon. The human 
heart is overflowing with tender emotion at the 
contemplation of the sweet enigma of childhood. 
In the entire material world there is nothing 
more sacred, pure and full of radiant hope than 
childhood with its vast possibilities of develop- 



THE CHILDREN OF POVERTY. Jl 

ment into ideal maturity. What a dismal desert 
life without childhood would be! What is a 
human family without the crowning glory of 
children? Nothing but legalized prostitution. 
The development of human society from a herd 
of half brutes and savages to a race of civilized 
and cultured beings may be measured by tfie 
kind and degree of care and attention it bestows 
upon its offspring. The higher a nation stands 
on the stage of culture and civilization, the 
stronger is its race-consciousness, the more pro- 
nounced is the recognition of its duty towards 
future generations, the more emphatic is its asser- 
tion of the rights of children as members of 
society. 

In our present commercial age of civilization 
the most sacred human relations — the family re- 
lations—are polluted by stupid mercantile con- 
siderations and corroded by irrational economic 
conditions. The matrimonial market is a tacitly 
recognized economic institution ; in the same 
sense as the board of trade — an officially sanc- 
tioned gambling institution. Pure affection be- 
tween the representatives of different sexes at 
the age of maturity seldom furnishes the basis 
of family life. Imbeciles, profligates and degen- 
erates may get the sexual commodity called 
husband or wife on the matrimonial market if 
they happen to be financially well situated and 
can pay the price. The fair proletarian maiden 
and sturdy youth of the class of the poor can 
not compete with the man with the coin in the 
matrimonial market. The heaven of family af- 
fection, the raptures of a child's innocent 
caresses, the blessings of a healthy progeny, are 
often denied them on the world's auction. The 



J2 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

fair proletarian maiden is cast on the thorny 
path of sexual slavery and her brother is driven 
to sexual profligacy. Those proletarians, how- 
ever, who dare to defy Mammon and his priests 
and marry in spite of all economic consideration 
are by the existing conditions compelled to pay 
a fearful penalty, as w r e have convinced our- 
selves, and drag their children along into pau- 
perism. Degrading, grinding want and misery, 
unhealthy surroundings, hopeless struggle 
against poverty, brutalizes the proletarian father 
and mother, turns the blessing of babyhood and 
childhood into a curse and perverts the instinct 
of creative love into its destructive opposite. 
Children are looked upon as a source of income 
and doomed to the fate of eternal drudgery. 

The exhausting soul-killing drudgery of physi- 
cal labor, the humiliation of poverty, the inse- 
curity of means of livelihood, with its endless 
anxieties and unceasing cares, weaken the physi- 
cal as well as the mental powers of the prole- 
tarian. 

The waste of energy and ability due to such 
conditions is beyond all calculations. 

The Eleventh Annual Report of the United 
States Commissioners of Labor, 1895-1896, on 
work and w r ages of men, women and children, 
contains some instructive data, throwing light 
on the causes of child and woman labor. The 
agents of the department secured information 
from 1,067 establishments of various kinds, lo- 
cated in 30 different States. 

The report makes a comparison between the 
data of the period 1895- 1896 and the former 
period ten years earlier: 

'The increase and per cent of increase of 



THE CHILDREN OF POVERTY. 73 

persons in 931 establishments over the former 
period were as follows : The increase of male 
employes 18 years of age and over amounted to 
16,716, or 63.1 per cent, while the female em- 
ployes 18 years of age or over increased 17,999, 
or 66.3 per cent. The male employes under 18 
years of age increased 3,365, or 80.6 per cent, 
and the female employes under 18 years of age 
increased 6,008, or 89.1 per cent. It appears, 
therefore, that the increase of female and child 
labor was quite pronounced in comparison with 
the increase of adult male labor. 13.19 per cent 
of children from 10 to 15 years of age were at 
work at the time of the census of 1870. At the 
census of 1880 the proportion of children from 

10 to 15 years of age at work was considerably 
larger, being 16.82 per cent. The whole number 
of children from 10 to 14 years of age in 1890 
was 7,033,509, and of their number 603,013, or 
8.57 per cent, were at work. The total number 
of children 15 years of age in 1890 was 1,288,- 
764, but to arrive at the number of those who 
were workers in that year, an estimate must be 
made on the basis of those 10 to 14 years of age 
who were at work. Now, to have the results a 
general average of 8.57 per cent at work of the 
ages from 10 to 14, it is plain that the individual 
per cent for each of these ages would run about 
like this: For those 10 years old, 3 per cent; 

11 years old, 5 per cent; 12 years old, 8 per cent; 
13 years, 11.5 per cent, and for 14 years, 15.5 
per cent. Such an estimate of the percentage at 
work at each age from 10 to 14 seems to be 
about what is necessary to bring the general 
average of 8.57 per cent at work when all from 
10 to 14 years are lumped together. From this 



74 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

it is manifest that of those 15 years old, about 
20 per cent, or 257,773, m ust have been workers. 
Adding this to 603,013, the number of workers 
from 10 to 14 years, the result is 860,786. This 
number, or 10.34 per cent of the whole number 
of children 10 to 15 years of age in 1890, repre- 
sents very closely the number at work. (Report, 
pp. 25, 26.) 

In connection with these data it is interesting 
to note that out of 781 instances in which men 
and women work at the same occupation and 
perform their work with the same degree of 
efficiency men receive greater pay in 595, or 
76.2 per cent, of the instances, and in 7.3, they 
receive the same pay for the same work. The 
men received 32.3 per cent greater pay than the 
women in the 595 cases in which they are given 
greater pay, while the women receive but 10.4 
per cent greater pay in the 129 instances in which' 
they are paid higher wages. Out of the 228 
instances in which men and children (persons 
under 18 years of age) work at the same occu- 
pation with a like degree of efficiency* men re- 
ceive greater pay in 24, or 10.5 per cent, while 
in 22 instances, or 9.7 per cent, they receive the 
same pay for the same work performed with 
the same degree of efficiency. The men received 
56.6 per cent greater pay than the children in 
the 182 instances in which they are paid more, 
while the children receive but 8.6 per cent greater 
pay in the 24 instances in which they are paid 
higher wages." (Report, p. 30.) 

The increasing perfection of the tools and 
methods of production, along with the minute 
subdivision of labor and co-operation of a vast 
number of workers, lead to the replacement of 



THE CHILDREN OF POVERTY. 75 

the comparatively expensive labor of adult male 
workers by women and children. The labor of 
women and children is not only cheaper than 
that of adult male workers, but has in the eyes 
of the capitalist another great advantage. Women 
and especially children offer a great deal less 
resistance to the exactions of their exploiters. 

This is the reason why, as the statistics of the 
labor bureaus of different States testify % the em- 
ployment of women and children is constantly 
increasing in the United States. 

About the work of women we will treat later, 
when analyzing the causes of poverty. 

The Second Annual Report of the New York 
Labor Bureau, devoted entirely to an investiga- 
tion of child labor, was summed up as follows: 
"My conclusions are: (i) The system of child 
labor exists in the State of New York in its 
worst form; (2) the compulsory education law 
is a dead letter; (3) the conditions of the laborers 
is of a low standard." 

The Commissioner of Labor of Ohio, in his 
report for 1887 (p. 9), says: "My attention has 
been_ frequently called to the alarming growth of 
women and child labor in gainful occupations. 
Children are crowded into workshops at the age 
of twelve ; when they reach manhood they are 
thrown out of work and their places filled with 
other boys." 

The inspector of factories on New Jersey says, 
in his second annual report (p. 19) : "Our ex- 
aminations show that there are thousands of 
children in the State who know no change but 
from the workshop to bed and from the bed to 
the workshop." 

The statistics in regard to the employment of 



?6 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

children, as given by the census of 1870, are as 
follows : 

Total workers of all classes returned 12,505,- 

923- 

Of these were children 10 to 15 years of age, 

739,i64. 

Thus, one out of every seventeen employes in 
the United States engaged in any gainful occu- 
pation, was a child under 15 years of age. 

In the tenth census the statistics show the 
following results : 
Total number of workers of all classes 

returned I7>39 2 >099 

Of these were children 10 to 15 years 1,118,356 

This is an average of one child out of every 
sixteen employes in the United States engaged 
in gainful occupations. 

The number of children employed in other 
than agricultural pursuits increased during the 
decade of 1870-1880 sixty-six per cent, while the 
number of adults increased during the same 
period only forty-seven per cent. ( Willoughby 
— Child Labor, p. 30.) 

In those States where the factory system has 
reached the highest development the extension of 
the employment of children was extremely rapid. 
(Crowell, in the Andover Review of July, 1885.) 

In cotton mills in 1880, one in each six of the 
employes was under fifteen years of age. 

In mining they numbered one in twenty. In 
tobacco one in twelve. 

The children toiling in sweatshops escape all 
control. Helen Campbell estimates that in New 
York alone 24,000 children under fiftejen are 
employed, a great portion of which are in tene- 



THE CHILDREN OF POVERTY. 77 

ment houses. Mr. Crowell, in the cited article ■, 
shows the employment of children in various 
States and industries as follows: 

In Baltimore the ratio of children to all other 
employes in the cotton mills was I 4. In Au- 
gusta, Ga., 1 :3 ; in Alleghany, Pa., 1 14 ; in Brook- 
lyn, 1 13 ; in Lancaster, Pa., 1 :S, and in Boston, 
12:17. In the six North Atlantic States, in 225 
textile factories of special prominence, seventeen 
per cent of the employes are children. In Penn- 
sylvania the textile industries gave work to 5,300 
boys of fifteen years and under. New Jersey 
employed fully 15,000 children ranging from 
eight to fifteen years of age. Paterson, out of 
a working population of 20,000, there were 3,000 
children at work. In Rhode Island the children 
composed twelve per cent of the whole working 
population. In the South the employment of 
children has in the last few years increased rap- 
idly. In North Carolina thirteen per cent of the 
cotton factory operatives are children of fifteen 
or under. 

According to the New York World, modern 
industrial conditions have increased child labor 
in the South more than 200 per cent in a single 
decade. 

The percentage of the cotton factory operatives 
in Alabama under sixteen years of age is greater 
than in any other State of the Union ; nearly 30 
per cent. The census of 1900 shows in our 
Southern cotton factories 24,459 children under 
sixteen. The Tradesman of Chattanooga (Aug. 
15) estimates that inasmuch as the number of 
mills has doubled at the South since the period 
covered by the census, the number under sixteen 
is now about 50,000. If the number of children 



7& AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

under sixteen has thus doubled in four years, we 
may assume that in another four years our oper- 
atives under sixteen may constitute an army of 
100,000 souls. What will be the total in ten 
years, in twenty? 

The following instances contained in a small 
pamphlet, entitled "Pictures from Life — Mill 
Children in Alabama," will illustrate the condition 
of child labor in the South: 

A little boy of six years has been working 12 
hours a day, from 6:20 a. m. to 6:20 p. m. (40 
minutes off at noon), for 15 cents per day. 

"Three boys aged respectively 9, 8 and 7 years. 
The boy aged 9 has been working two years, the 
boy aged 8 has been working three years; the 
boy aged 7 years has been working two years. 
These little fellows work 13 hours a day, from 
5:20 A. M. to 6:30 P. M., with twenty minutes 
for dinner. In "rush" periods their mill works 
until 9:30 and 10 P. M. They were refused a 
holiday for Thanksgiving and they obtained 
Christmas day only by working till 7 P. M. in 
order to make up the time. 

"Two girls, aged 16 and 11 ; each has had the 
fingers on one of her hands maimed by the ma- 
chinery, one at the age of 9 and the other at the 
age of 8. These are not rare cases. Almost all 
of the children are growing up in total illiteracy. 

The factory inspector of Chicago reported in 
1 88 1 4,600 boys and girls of fifteen and under 
in the factories and workshops. In 1882 there 
were found 6,900, an increase of sixty-eight per 
cent, while there was an increase of but eighteen 
per cent during the same year in the male labor- 
ers over that age. 

In the American coal fields the labor of chil- 



THE CHILDREN OF POVERTY. 79 

dren has been found in one of its worst forms. 
The industrial statistics of Pennsylvania for the 
year 1882- 1883 reported 87,000 employed in that 
industry, of whom 24,000 were boys and four- 
fifteenths 15 years of age and under. 

The number of boys who work in the hard coal 
mines is imperfectly realized in the rest of the 
United States. According to the report of the 
Bureau of Mines in Pennsylvania for 1901, 147,- 
651 persons were employed "inside and outside 
the mines of the anthracite region"; of these 
19,564 were classified as slate-pickers, 3,148 as 
door-boys and helpers, and 10,894 as drivers and 
runners. 

"The report makes no classification of miners 
by their ages, but I am convinced that 90 per cent 
of the slate pickers, 30 per cent of the drivers 
and runners, and all of the door boys and helpers 
are boys. In other words, a total of 24,023, or 
nearly one-sixth of all the employes of the anthra- 
cite coal mines, are children," says Mr. Frances 
H. Nicols in McClure's Magazine for February, 
1903. 

The same authority says that the legal age 
limit is usually falsified. "While the miner's boy 
is working in the breaker or the mine it is prob- 
able that his daughter is employed in a mill or 
factory," says Mr. Nicols. 

The statistics of the coal counties of anthracite 
count up 11,216 females employed in them, 2,403 
between twelve and sixteen years of age. 

"The perjury certificate prevails for the girls as 
well as the boys, and I estimate that 90 per cent 
of the 11,216 females are girls who have not 
reached womanhood. They work ten hours a 
day, and the majority stand all the time, having 



SO AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

a chance to sit only in the noon-hours. This 
brings a characteristic lameness in the girls dur- 
ing the first year at the mill." 

The report of the Secretary of Internal Affairs 
of the State places the average daily wages of 
children between the ages of thirteen and six- 
teen employed in the manufacture of underwear 
at forty-seven cents, in hosiery at forty-six cents. 

The children of the Coal Shadow submit un- 
complainingly to a habitual treatment which in a 
country like China would be considered cruel 
and intolerable. 

The Children of the Coal Shadow have no 
child life. The little tots are sullen, the older 
children fight ; they rarely play, and almost their 
only amusement is the union and the strike. That 
is the logical result of the condition of their 
existence. They have no friends. Their parents, 
driven by what they think is necessity, forswear 
them into bondage. Their employers, compelled 
by what they regard as economic forces, grind 
them to hatred. The State, ruled by influence, 
either refrains from ameliorating laws or en- 
forcement. The rest of the world does not care. 

In the iron and steel industry the census of 
1880 shows an increase of boys from 2,400 in 
1870 to 7,700 in 1880, an increase of 216 per 
cent, as compared with an increase of seventy- 
eight per cent of employes over sixteen years of 
age. 

The following extract from the Second Annual 
Report of the New York Inspector of Factories 
and Workshops (1884, p. 14) is very interest- 
ing: 

"Large numbers of children have been exam- 
ined in all our manufacturing districts. Almost 



THE CHILDREN OF POVERTY. 8l 

all the children examined were between the ages 
of twelve and fifteen. The average age at which 
the children went to w 7 ork was nine years. All 
of them had been accustomed to work ten hours 
a day, and many of them thirteen and more hours 
a day through overtime. The general appear- 
ance of those children is noteworthy. Children, 
who had been set to work at an early age, were, 
as a rule, delicate, puny and ignorant ; they know 
the least, having forgotten the little they had 
been taught before going to work, Children of 
thirteen years, with little old faces, said they did 
not care for school or play." The same report 
on page 18 states: 

"At least thirty per cent could not name the 
city in which they lived. Sixty per cent had 
never heard of the United States or Europe, and 
ninety-five per cent had never heard of the Revo- 
lutionary War. Many who had heard of the 
United States could not say where they were." 
These conditions did not change materially in the 
last years, as can be concluded from articles like 
"Child Life vs. Dividends," in the American Ited- 
erationist for May, 1902, by Irene Asly-Mac- 
fadyen. The wages of children sacrificed on the 
Altar of Mammon are ridiculously small. In 
1897 the factory inspectors found 9,259 children 
employed in different industrial establishments. 
In 1901 the factory inspectors found 19,939 c ^~ 
dren at work, as shown in their reports. The 
increase was greater in 1901 than in any previous 
year, being 5,583 children. 

Illinois permits children to work who cannot 
read in any language, who have never attended 
any school. There is no educational test before 
b&ginning to work. All the training: required by 



82 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

children in the labor market is in the direction of 
mechanical and brainless routine. The factory 
child can develop no individuality, and promises, 
in coming maturity, to be little more than an ad- 
dition to the mass of wretched, unskilled labor. 

Moreover, many occupations threaten actual 
disability by mutilation and disease. In the manu- 
facture of cigars, both girls and boys are em- 
ployed, and the saturation of the children with 
nicotine is only a question of time. So it is in 
other respects in other unhealthy industries. Of 
the garment workers it is true now as in 1894 
that "many of the boys in the sweatshops are 
button-holers and every little button-holer is 
destined soonor or later to develop curvature of 
the spine. Other boys run foot power machines, 
and the fate that awaits them is consumption of 
the lungs or intestines. Many of the little girls 
are "hand girls," whose backs grow crooked over 
their work of hemming and felling or sewing, on 
buttons. 

In the stamping industry children are often 
mutilated. Work in the laundries entails ex- 
haustion from heat and dampness, and long, 
irregular hours of work. The proportion of blind 
or partly blind children in glass blowing com- 
munities is unusually large. Finally, the children 
work in the excessive heat of ovens through the 
night and go half clad, weary and hungry, out 
into the dawn of the early winter morning. 

Illinois permits her children to work at night, 
and they do work all night long in many indus- 
tries in which men and children are needed and 
where night work is carried on either regularly or 
occasionally. 

And what is the pittance? At a liberal esti- 



THE CHILDREN OF POVERTY. 83 

mate it would average in Chicago. $2.50 per week, 
from which must he deducted sixty cents for car 
fare. (See pamphlet on child labor in Illinois 
by the local Federation of Women's Club, 1902- 
1903, pp. 6-1 1.) 

The condition of working children in New 
York is about as bad as those in Chicago and 
Illinois, as can be readily proved by extracts from 
the pamphlet "Child Labor/' published by the 
Child Labor Committee. 

This century of legal endeavor has fallen far 
short of guaranteeing to poor children the rights 
of childhood — the chance to be happy, the chance 
to develop strong minds and strong bodies — the 
chance to grow into well-rounded men and 
women, able to hold their own in life. 

Children of thirteen and twelve, and even fewer 
years, are at work despite the most faithful efforts 
of the factory inspectors. Children are at work 
for inhumanely long hours during the weeks pre- 
ceding the holiday season. 

Children are regularly employed for long hours 
before and after school. A great number of 
child-workers, newsboys, bootblacks, street ped- 
dlers, office boys, delivery boys, messenger boys, 
are absolutely without any legal protection what- 
ever. 

A few typical cases, no worse than hundreds 
of others which have been investigated by the 
Child Labor Committee, will give an idea of the 
hours, of the wages and the conditions of work 
of these little under-age laborers. 

Peter Basto is regularly employed in a button 
factory to sew buttons on cards. He has his 
(legal age) certificate, though he is but thirteen 
years old and though he is only four feet in 



84 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

height and conspicuously undeveloped. He works 
six days in the week from seven-thirty in the 
morning until seven o'clock at night, with an 
intermission of half an hour at noon. In return 
for his sixty-six hours of work each week he 
receives a wage of two dollars and a half. 
Thirteen-year-old Jennie Chianti had to say she 
was fourteen "to get her certificate/' according to 
the statement of her sister and her friend. Every 
day except Sunday she works from eight in the 
morning to six in the evening in a factory where 
she helps trim dresses for other children. Her 
weekly wage is two dollars and a half. As trim- 
ming is not a lucrative occupation, on Sundays 
and in the evenings she makes artificial flowers 
for a near-by manufacturer. 

Milly Agricola and Mary Pelota both work in 
a leggin factory from seven-thirty in the morning 
until six in the evening, with half an hour for 
luncheon. Each is thirteen years old and each 
receives two dollars per week. 

According to her employment certificate, Ange- 
line Peratti is fifteen years old, but her actual age 
is twelve. She works in an artificial flower fac- 
tory from seven-thirty in the morning until six 
in the evening. In the evenings she helps her 
mother and younger sister make artificial flowers 
at home. She is in a pitiful physical condition, 
being subject to epileptic fits and being troubled 
with a weak heart. In all her life she attended 
school just one short month. 

Public School No. 180 in New York City fur- 
nishes an illustration of the results that follow 
the employment of children during vacation. Out 
of the ninety boys who were in this school when 
it closed in Tune, 1902, nineteen, or over twenty 



THE CHILDREN OF POVERTY. 85 

per cent, went to work and did not return in 
' September. Of the nineteen, eight were not four- 
teen when they began work, and eleven wei;e 
between fourteen and fifteen. None of them were 
more than two years in school. 

The case of fourteen-year-old Lena Schwartz 
is typical of a great number of children, whose 
condition is even worse than that of the average 
of the child laborers. During the busy season 
she dips candy five days of the week from seven 
in the morning until nine at night, and on the 
other day from eight till nine, w T ith thirty min- 
utes for luncheon and fifteen minutes for supper. 
Her aggregate number of hours for the week 
during the busy season is seventy-eight and one- 
half. She has w r eak eyes, the result of previously 
working late into the night upon artificial flow- 
ers, and round shoulders and a hollow chest, 
largely due to the exhausting character of her 
present occupation. 

Newsboys, bootblacks, peddlers, office boys, 
delivery boys, messenger boys — these can work 
as long hours as they or their employers choose, 
and all day and night in cases — they can be set 
at work at any age that suits their parents. 

Boys eight and nine years have been found 
working for delivery companies. 

Last fall twenty-five boys in the employ of one 
of the delivery companies went out on a strike. 
Several of these boys were under fourteen — the 
leader was thirteen. They said they worked four 
days in the week from seven-thirty in the morn- 
ing until nine or ten at night and on Fridays and 
Saturdays until midnight or until one o'clock in 
the morning. If the packages were not delivered 
on Saturday night they worked Sundays until 



86 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

they were delivered. Visits were made to the 
homes of these boys and their parents and former 
teachers were questioned. In all essential par- 
ticulars the stories of the boys were substantiated. 

During the holiday season there is practically 
no limit to the number of hours that may be 
demanded of the boys working as messengers. 
The present investigation has discovered cases of 
messengers being on duty continuously for 
twenty, thirty, thirty-two, forty and even seventy- 
two hours. The only rest during these long 
periods were snatches of sleep taken between 
messages on the wooden benches in the office. 
Some of these boys were only fourteen, and sev- 
eral were even younger. 

Such is their "start in life" — messenger boy, 
delivery boy, after-school worker, factory child. 
With such a start, such a present, what can their 
future be ? 

The children of the toiling masses are kept out 
of school in order to be sacrificed -to the Molloch 
of profit-making Capitalism. Child labor and 
starvation wages condition each other. 

We take the liberty to quote here from our 
book, "The Passing of Capitalism" : 

According to Dr. Folkmar, of all the children 
in Chicago and Milwaukee that enter the public 
school, (i) about one-third go no further than 
the first grade; (2) about one-half go no further 
than the second grade; (3) about two-thirds go 
no further than the third grade ; (4) about three- 
fourths go no further than the fourth grade; (5) 
about nine-tenths go only half way through the 
twelve grades; (6) about ninety-seven in every 
hundred drop out before reaching the high 
school; (7) only three in every thousand fijaish 



THE CHILDREN OF POVERTY. 87 

the entire course. Or more exactly, the following 
per cent drops out of each grade: Grade I, 32 
per cent; II, 51 per cent; III, 66 per cent; IV, 
78 per cent; V, 86 per cent; VII, 95 per cent; 
VIII, 97 per cent; IX, 98 per cent; X, 99 per 
cent ; XI, 99.7 per cent. 

Ex-superintendent C. L. T. Smart of the State 
of Ohio states that only about 3 per cent of the 
pupils enrolled in the public schools ever enter, 
and from them less than 1 per cent graduate ; 50 
per cent of the youths enrolled in the public 
schools of the State do not attend school more 
than four years ; 75 per cent stop attending school 
before entering the eighth grade. Dr. Wm. Har- 
ris, United States Commissioner of Education, 
says in his report to the Committee of Fifteen: 
"The average number of pupils of the St. Louis 
school in the lowest three years of the course 
was about 72 per cent of the entire number en- 
rolled. Nearly three-fourths of all the pupils of 
the public schools are in the studies of the first 
three years or in primary studies. Six-sevenths 
of the population of the United States, on arriv- 
ing at the proper age for the secondary education, 
never receive it. Thirty out of thirty-one fail to 
receive higher education upon arriving at the 
proper age. The question now arises : What is 
the main cause of this remarkably short duration 
of school attendance? Mr. C. L. Smart says: 
"A majority of the patrons of the public schools 
cannot do without the labor of their children, 
and therefore cannot give them time to attend 
school longer." Dr. D. Folkman says : "I answer 
without hesitation that the chief factors are 
economic conditions. Too many either cannot 
support their children as they desire, or cannot 



88 



AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 



spare them through a longer period of school- 

ing." 

UNITED STATES CENSUS 1900. 

(Population, Vol. II, Part II, Table 65, p. 422.) 

Illiterate Children Between the Ages of 10 and 14 

Years in Each State. 



Alabama 66,072 

Alaska 1,903 

Arizona 2,592 

Arkansas 26,972 

California 1,279 

Colorado 742 

Connecticut 436 

Delaware 845 

District of Columbia 398 
Florida 8,389 

Georgia 63,329 

Hawaii 394 

Idaho 209 

Illinois 4,044 

Indiana !,453 

Indian Territory ..12,172 

Iowa 883 

Kansas 878 

Kentucky 21,247 

Louisiana 55,69* 

Maine 1,255 

Maryland 5,859 

Massachusetts i,547 

Michigan 1,744 

Minnesota 1,365 

Mississippi 44,334 

Missouri 11,660 

Montana 374 

Nebraska 412 

Nevada 275 

New Hampshire . . . 557 

New Jersey 2,069 

New Mexico 4,354 

New York 4,740 

North Carolina 51,190 



1. Wyoming 72 

2. Oregon 175 

3. Idaho 209 

4. Utah 220 

5. Nevada 275 

6. Vermont 287 

7. Washington . .. 340 

8. Montana 374 

9. Hawaii 394 

10. District of Co- 

lumbia 398 

11. Nebraska . . 412 

12. Connecticut . . . 436 

13. South Dakota,. 472 

14. New Hamp- 

shire 557 

15. Rhode Island.. 691 

16. Colorado 742 

17. North Dakota.. 836 

18. Delaware 845 

19. Kansas 878 

20. Iowa 883 

21. Maine , 1,255 

22. California 1,279 

23. Oklahoma .... 1,295 

24. Minnesota .... 1,365 

25. Indiana i,453 

26. Massachusetts . 1,547 

27. Wisconsin .... 1,688 

28. Michigan 1,744 

29. Alaska 1,903 

30. Ohio 2,048 

31. New Jersey . . . 2,069 

32. Arizona 2,592 

33. Illinois 4044 

34. New Mexico . . 4,354 

35. New York 4,740 



THE CHILDREN OF POVERTY. 



8 9 



North Dakota 836 

Ohio 2,048 

Oklahoma 1,295 

Oregon 175 

Pennsylvania 6,326 

Rhode Island 691 

South Carolina 51,536 

South Dakota 472 

Tennessee 36,375 

Texas 35491 

Utah 220 

Vermont 287 

Virginia 287 

Washington 340 

West Virginia 5,819 

Wisconsin 1,688 

Wyoming 72 



36, 
37' 
38 
39. 
40. 

41 

42, 

43 

44 
45 
46, 

47 
48 
49. 
50. 
51 
52 



West Virginia . 

Maryland 

Pennsylvania .. 

Florida 

Missouri 

Indian Terri- 
tory 

Kentucky 

Arkansas . 

Virginia 

Texas 

Tennessee 

Mississippi 
North Carolina. 
South Carolina. 

Louisiana 

Georgia 

Alabama 



5,8i9 
5,859 
6,326 

8 5 389 
11,660 

12,172 
21,247 
26,972 
34>6i2 
35491 
36,375 
44,334 
51,190 
51,536 
55,691 
63,329 
66,072 



United States. . .579,947 The United States. 579,947 

The column at the left is exactly as taken from 
the census. The column at the right is the same 
material arranged with the States in the order 
of the illiteracy of the children, those States 
which have the least number of illiterate children 
appearing at the top of the column and those 
having the largest number of illiterate children 
appearing at the bottom. 

Commenting on these figures, the Fourtl\ An- 
nual Report of the National Consumers League 
states as follows : 

"A significant point in the table is the appear- 
ance, in the topmost group, of the States of the 
agricultural Northwest where manufacture and 
commerce have not yet reached a high degree of 
development. . In these States and in Connecticut, 
Vermont, the Hawaiian Islands and the District 
of Columbia, the number of illiterate children be- 
tween ten and fourteen years of age now reached 



fO AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

five hundred. Particularly interesting is the fact 
that Wyoming, which heads the list with only 
seventy-two illiterate children, has long main- 
tained traveling teachers to instruct children on 
remote ranches. 

Another significant point in the table is the 
appearance in the third group, nearer the bottom 
of the scale of the States than the top, of all the 
six great manufacturing States, with the excep- 
tion of Massachusetts. When graded according 
to the value of their manufactured products, these 
States rank in the following order : New York, 
Pennsylvania, Illinois, Massachusetts, Ohio and 
New Jersey. But when graded according to the 
numbers of their illiterate children between the 
ages of ten and fourteen years, they rank as 
follows : 



26, 
30. 
31 
33 
35. 
38 



Massachusetts 1,547 

Ohio 2,048 

New Jersey 2,069 

Illinois , 4,044 

New York 4,740 

Pennsylvania 6,326 



Total 20,770" 



At a congress of the State Federation of Labor 
of New Jersey, held in Trenton, a resolution was 
passed calling upon the Governor to remove the 
State factory inspector for failure to abolish child 
labor. The inspector was called before the con- 
gress and practically admitted that child labor 
existed in New Jersey, but that he was powerless 
to stop it. 

There are several places in New Jersey where 
child slavery, in one form or another, exists, but 
nowhere is the law so flagrantly violated as in 



THE CHILDREN OF POVERTY. 9 1 

Patterson. There the little white slaves endure 
an existence that is as hopeless and as dismal as 
that of any child in the coal breakers or knitting 
mills of Pennsylvania. 

There is a constant disposition on the part of 
the mill owners to supplant the labor of men and 
adult women with young girls and with children. 
Women in Patterson are paid from seven to ten 
dollars a week. This is considerably less than 
is paid to men ; but children can be hired for less 
than either. And so the child came to be a factor 
in the mill life of Patterson. 

In one factory not one mojie than a quarter of 
the employes were men, the rest were all women 
and girls, and of the latter fully one hundred did 
not seem to be over eleven years of age. 

"There are three flax mills in Patterson that 
give employment to about two thousand hands. 
According to factory reports, only one hundred 
of these are less than sixteen years old. Near the 
flax mills is the tenement quarter of Patterson. 
Few of the families have more than two rooms 
and many of them possess only one. In the 
evenings and on Sundays the neighborhood 
swarms with children, but from seven o'clock in 
the morning until six in the evening on every 
week day the noise of their laughter and play is 
not heard in this part of Patterson. With care- 
worn, pale faces the children form a sort of a 
melancholy procession which 'comes home' 
from the mill at evening. Some of them may be 
fourteen years old. If they are they have al- 
ready lived four or five years in the factory. But 
by far the greater number are certainly not over 
eleven. 

"From the lips of men and women whose lives 



92 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

are spent behind the dull brick walls of the fac- 
tories the following is known about the work of 
the children there: 

'Tart of the process of weaving flax consists 
in hemp steaming. In a room with a stone and 
cement floor the coils of flax are wrung out in 
hot water to make it pliable for weaving. This 
work is performed entirely by females, many of 
whom are little girls. With bare feet and cov- 
ered with rubber aprons they spend what should 
be the happy days of childhood in a room filled 
with clouds of steam, twisting the wet hemp 
coils. 

"The pay of the little girls in either a silk or 
hemp factory is about the same. When a girl 
enters the mill she receives about $1.25 a week. 
In the course of two or three years her pay is 
gradually increased until by the time sfre is 
fifteen years old she makes perhaps $2.50 or 
$3.00 a week. This sum constitutes her wages 
for several years, until she is old and experienced 
enough to 'learn the trade' of a weaver. In the 
flax mills her remuneration for the work is very 
rarely more than $8.00 a week; in the silk mills 
it is sometimes as high as $12.00. 

"In certain districts of the city there are no 
longer any little girls, there are only middle aged 
women, and women too old to work. And yet 
it would be a cruelty and injustice to lay the 
blame for the child labor evil at the door of the 
parents. Among the adult workers in the flax 
mills it is very exceptional to find one who makes 
more than $8.00 a week. This is not enough to 
support a family. The only recourse for parents 
is to send their little girls to the mill." (Francis 
H. Nickols in the Christian Herald, September 
3, 1903.) 



PENNSYLVANIA CHILD LABOR. 

(Special correspondence of the Evening Post.) 

"Scranton, Pa., February 10, 1903. — The 
crusade against child labor began with the intro- 
duction of a group of silk-mill children as wit- 
nesses before the Anthracite Coal Strike Com- 
mission, then sitting at Scranton, Pa. Un- 
dreamed-of conditions were laid bare; public 
indignation rose to white heat; press and pulpit 
joined in giving publicity to the facts, and from 
many quarters came demands for immediate leg- 
islation which would do away with at least the 
grosser evils. The United Mine Workers and the 
anthracite coal operators joined in preparing a 
bill for Pennsylvania. 

The story of this campaign in Pennsylvania is 
full of interest "We actually find the flesh and 
blood of little girls coined into money/' exclaimed 
Judge Grey, as the children stood before the 
Commission. "This matter of night labor by 
young girls," he continued, "should be made 
known in every part of Pennsylvania." This 
work has been done. It only remains for the leg- 
islators to make good the laws which have this 
week been sent to them. 

To-day efforts to rescue little children from 
sodden toil which robs them of their childhood 
and does violence to the unborn children of other 
generations are met with open threats. When the 
cry was first raised against the iniquitous regime 
in Pennsylvania, the superintendent of one large 

93 



94 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

mill publicly asserted: "One thing is certain — 
tinkering with existing conditions will drive the 
silk mills out of Pennsylvania to States where 
labor conditions are satisfactory. As matters 
stand, Pennsylvania has a lower age limit than 
any of her neighbors, and that fact is responsible 
for much of the prosperity of the State. If the 
age limit be raised, even though the raise be only 
one year, the factories will go elsewhere/' 

There have been breathless moments at the 
hearings of the Strike Commission, but none so 
intense as when eleven-year-old Helen Sisscak 
and Theresa McDermott and Rosa Zinka sat in 
the witness chair and told the story of their lives. 
Every one of the seven Commissioners rose to 
his feet and strained towards the children. The 
crowded courtroom became as still as a summer 
night; not a dress rustled, not a foot scraped; 
the childish voices were heard in every corner. 
Chairman Grey asked most of the questions. The 
children spoke simply and frankly, as children 
will, much puzzled as to why so many people 
were interested in them. They did not know that 
seventeen thousand little girls under sixteen years 
of age who toil in the great silk mills and lace 
factories of central Pennsylvania were speaking 
through them. When they told of leaving their 
homes to report at the factory at half-past six, 
and of spending the long hours of the night until 
half-past six in the morning, when, tired and half 
asleep, they dragged back across the fields or 
through the streets of the scattered town to their 
beds, they did not realize that their words meant 
the emancipation of nearly four thousand child 
workers from night labor. 

Since then I have visited the homes of these 



PENNSYLVANIA CHILD LABOR. 95 

children and many others besides. Some of the 
little toilers get five cents an hour, others three, 
for the work. 

"Why do you allow your little chilci to do 
this ?" I asked of one father. 

He glared at me a moment, then answered 
laconically : 

"It means bread money." 

The man was a miner. I put the same question 
to the mother of another. 

She answered never a word, but handed me her 
store book. 

It needed only a cursory examination to see 
that there were few extravagances in that house- 
hold. Then, as I glanced round the bare kitchen 
and through a doorway into the bedroom beyond, 
further questioning would have seemed mockery. 
The house was old and unpainted. The homes 
of these girls are often two and three miles from 
the mills, and children are obliged to walk in all 
kinds of weather. A number of children were 
found who allow an hour to reach the mill. 
Twelve hours of work and two hours walking 
would leave a strong man but little energy. 

CONDITIONS IN THE FACTORIES. 

The first of the silk factories that I saw was 
near Scranton. It was built near the Susque- 
hanna River, on a knoll of the Blue Ridge Moun- 
tains. In the clear atmosphere of a dark night 
its blaze of lighted windows shone like an acre of 
the starry heavens brought low and thrown be- 
fore the shadowy mountains. When the heavy 
door had been opened to my call and closed again 
behind me, the clatter and din were deafening. 



96 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

A hazel-eyed child in a dirty red waist flitted 
past me. I stopped her to ask her age. 

"Eleven past/' she replied. 

"How long have you worked in the mill?" 

"A year past," she answered promptly and 
went on. 

A small boy was cleaning bobbins close to the 
nearest rattling loom. He told me he was four- 
teen. I should have guessed eleven. He had 
been three years in the mill. A surprised feature 
of this work is that the shifts are not alternated. 
The day-shift children are always on the day- 
shift, and the night-shift ones are always on 
the night-shift. The work is not heavy. It is 
as continuous as machine work. Constant vigi- 
lance is necessary. The fine silk fibers snap easily 
and must be quickly tied. 

"The tangles are always worst when I am 
tiredest," said one small girl. "I have to twist 
back the reel for a long time until all the tangles 
are gone. The big girl who had charge of our 
department often scolded me, and sometimes the 
man who was night superintendent told me he 
would discharge me if I couldn't do better. Then 
my head would ache something awful, and I 
would have to cry, and some other girl would 
straighten out the tangle." 

Another, who had just been taken out of the 
mill, said to a friend of mine who made a note of 
her words : "When I first went to work at night 
the long standing hurt me very much. My feet 
burned so that I cried. My knees hurt me worse 
than my feet, and my back pained all the time. 
Mother cried when I told her how I suffered, 
and that made me feel so badly that I did not 
tell her any more. It does not hurt so much 



PENNSYLVANIA CHILD LABOR. 97 

now, but I feel tired all the time. I do not feel 
near as tired, though, as I did the time I worked 
all night. My eyes hurt me, too, from watching 
the threads at night. The doctor said they would 
be ruined if I did not stop the night work. After 
watching the threads a long time, I could see 
threads everywhere. When I looked at other 
things, there were threads running across them. 
Sometimes I felt as though the threads were cut- 
ting my eyes." 

All physical ailments are naturally found 
among these children, especially nervous diseases, 
brought on through enforced wakefulness and 
the unnatural system of life. Throat and lung 
troubles are frequent, and anaemia is as common 
as is miner's asthma among the miners. Heart 
affections and stomach disorders are common. 
The tendency is always to devitalize the children, 
stunting their growth, and so weaken their pow- 
ers of resistance as to leave them easy prey for 
disease of every order. 

But this is not the saddest feature of night 
labor. There are phases to this question too 
terrible to describe. In the warm months of 
spring, summer and autumn, during the half hour 
in the middle of the night which is allowed for 
refreshments, the children are encouraged to leave 
the factory and spend the time in the outside air. 
In most instances the silk mills and lace factories 
of Pennsylvania are somewhat isolated from the 
villages and towns. They occupy lonely sites on 
the edge of the mountains or near river banks. 
The children leave the heated atmosphere of the 
factory rooms and run among the trees or across 
the fields. One or two men are supposed to 
watch over them, but under cover of the night 



98 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

their vision is short. Those who should know, 
the police, justices of the peace, and investigators, 
say that immoral loafers and strange men lurk 
around these mills. In every factory there are 
girls who are older whose influence is not the 
best. 

NIGHT WORK. 

According to the State factory inspector, there 
are something over 17,000 girls between the ages 
of thirteen and sixteen who work in manufactur- 
ing establishments of the State. Of this number 
approximately 4,000 work all night in the textile 
mills, and it was estimated at the beginning of 
this investigation that nearly fifty per cent of 
these are under thirteen years of age. A promi- 
nent Scranton lawyer is responsible for the state- 
ment that "more than one-half of the children 
who work all night in the textile mills are under 
the statutory age. Fully 75 per cent of all the 
girls who do night work are under fifteen years/' 
The legal age in Pennsylvania is thirteen, but, 
as Judge Gray took occasion to remark, some of 
the State laws are but dead letters in the anthra- 
cite regions. In one week following the disclos- 
ures before the Commission over two hundred 
children were removed by a single inspector. 

Child labor seems to be largely in demand, 
Prosperity means an increased market for silk 
and laces. "Girls wanted" is found on signs 
tacked to the factory doors. This tends to make 
the employers careless in scrutinizing the age cer- 
tificates. Every child has to produce a certificate 
which purports to show that she is at least 
thirteen years old. If the parent, or even the 



PENNSYLVANIA CHILD LABOR. 99 

child herself, makes out this certificate it covers 
the letter of the law and relieves the responsible 
ones of legal responsibility. 

The root of the question lies in the incentive 
which prompts a misstatement. The first cause 
is poverty. 

There are about seventeen hundred and fifty 
thousand children between the ages of ten and 
fifteen years employed in the mines and factories 
of the United States, according to Mr. Waudby. 

"The alarming rapidity of the increase of this 
traffic in human flesh and blood has been so 
insidious as to have, like the rising tide of the 
sea, engulfed us before we discovered it. Child 
labor of the past and child labor of the present 
are two different problems. In the first instance 
the child was not considered as a 'wage earner/ 
but was sent into, the mills, the mines and the 
factories, for the purpose of learning a trade. 
Now-a-days he is sent into these hives of in- 
dustry to become an integral part of a machine 
and as such is looked upon with no personal re- 
gard whatever. His employer has no interest in 
his welfare beyond what his productive capacity 
will bring forth. The factories, the mines, the 
work shop and the great mercantile establish- 
ments of our country teem with the labor of chil- 
dren. The report of the census office for the 
year 1900, when issued, will show that for the 
mainland of the United States, excluding Alaska 
and Hawaii, there were, approximately, one mil- 
lion seven hundred fifty thousand persons from 
ten to fifteen years of age, inclusive, reported as 
engaged in gainful occupations. 

Hundreds of thousands of little children are 
being defrauded of their American heritage — the 



U.ofC. 



100 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

right to a liberal education— by being compelled 
to work in the mills, the mines and the work 
shops, thus being stunted in body as well as in 
mind ! 

Accidents to the boy mine workers, who claim 
about eight cents an hour, are of daily occurrence, 
and many of them are of a fatal nature. 

At Scranton, last November, Charles Bie- 
berich, a fourteen-year-old boy, was killed in the 
Gibbon breaker, and, before the machinery could 
be stopped, the body was horribly mangled. 

In the cotton and woolen mills of North Caro- 
lina 3,857 boys and 4,139 girls under fourteen 
years of age work from ten to over twelve hours 
per day. 

Over a thousand children between the ages of 
six and fourteen are employed in fine cotton 
mills which stand within a mile of the State Capi- 
tol of South Carolina. 

More than a thousand children are kept at 
work in the coal cellars of New York/' (Wil- 
liam S. Waudby, Special Agent U. S. Depart- 
ment of Labor, in Frank Leslie's Popular 
Monthly for April, 1903.) 

Child labor in the textile mills in the South 
is reduplicated not only in other industries in 
the South, but in the Middle States, and in more 
than one Northern State, notwithstanding many 
years of child labor legislation. 

Child labor in the North is employed to a very 
much greater extent than in the South. Besides 
the thirteen thousand children under sixteen em- 
ployed in the factories of New York, there are 
thousands in the stores,, thousands on the streets, 
and other thousands scattered throughout the 
offices of the city. Child labor has assumed 



PENNSYLVANIA CHILD LABOR. IOI 

stupendous proportions. Children are deformed, 
maimed, weakened, and made diseased for life in 
many of the trades flourishing in every industrial 
community. In the Minnesota Bureau of Labor, 
for instance, the statistics show that the accidents 
among children are many times more common 
than those among adults. (Wm. English Wall- 
ing, in the Eltical Record for January, 1903.) 

We will conclude with Mrs. Elizabeth Barrett 
Browning's "Cry of the Children" : 

"Do you hear the children weeping, O my brothers? 

They are weeping bitterly. 
They are weeping in the playtime of the others, 

In the country of the free. 
They look up with their pale and sunken faces, 

And their looks are sad to see, 
For the man's hoary anguish draws and presses 

Down the cheeks of infancy — 
'Your old earth/ they say, 'is very dreary' ; 

'Our young feet/ they say, 'are very weak/ 
For, 'oh/ say the children, 'we are wear}', 

And we cannot run and leap.' 
For all day the wheels are droning, turning, 

Their wind comes in our faces, 
Till our hearts turn, our heads with pulses burning, 

And the walls turn in their places — 
Turns the sky in the high window blank and reeling, 

Turns the long light that drops adown the wall, 
Turns the black flies that crawl along the ceiling, 

All are turning, all the day, and we with all. 
All the day the iron wheels are droning, 

And sometimes we could play 
'Oh, ye wheels' (breaking out in a mad moaning), 

'Stop! Be silent for the day!' 
'Ay! be silent! Let them hear each other breathing 

For a moment, mouth to mouth; 
Let them touch each other's hands, in a fresh wreathing 

Their tender human youth. 
Let them feel that this cold metallic motion 

Is not all the life God fashions or reveals; 



102 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

Let them prone their living souls against the notion 
That they live in you or under you, O wheels !' 

Still all day the iron wheels go onward, 
Grinding life down from its mark; 

And the children's souls, which God is calling sunward, 
Spin on blindly in the dark." 



THE CAUSES OF POVERTY IN THE 
UNITED STATES. 

The philosophy of life of our mercantile civili- 
zation was aptly summarized by Carlyle in the 
following words: 

"Scramble along thou insane scramble of the 
world, thou art all right and shall scramble even 
so on. And who ever in the press is trodden 
down has only to lie there and be trampled broad. 
Ours is a world requiring only to be well let 
alone." We justify this "scramble of the world" 
by all kind of more or less euphonious but 
meaningless phrases about "the survival of the 
fittest" and other pseudo-scientific individualistic 
maxims. We are not satisfied with "trampling 
broad" those of our brothers and sisters in hu- 
manity who happen to be weaker than we are 
economically, but we add insult to injury by label- 
ing them as "unfit to survive." As a matter of 
fact, however, it is not the parasitic minority who 
trample down who survive, but just the reverse. 
The proletariat, in spite of its being trodden down 
"and trampled broad," survives and justifies its 
name, while the idle rich die out. The so-called 
"law of the survival of the fittest" is the weakest 
point in the Darwinian philosophy, and, if ap- 
plied to demography, proves to be merely a para- 
phrase of the long-ago exploded theory of Mal- 
thus. The very idea of an over-populization of 
America seems preposterous. As, however, Mal- 
thusian views are still surviving in the minds of 
103 



104 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

the uncritical multitude a few words about them 
may be not out of place in this treatise. We 
will quote here such authorities on the subject 
as Nitti and Loria. 

Malthus' law explains nothing just as it com- 
prehends nothing. Bound by rigid formulas 
which are belied by history and demography, it 
is incapable of explaining not only the mystery of 
poverty, but the alternate reverses of human 
civilization. Statistical examinations show that 
the birth rate scarcely ever goes below 20 births 
for 100 inhabitants, and scarcely ever beyond 50. 
But all the oscillations which occur between 20 
and 50 are but necessary results not of a bio- 
logical fatal law, but of economic and social laws, 
which vary with the change of civilization and of 
economic constitution. (F. S. Nitti, Population 
and Social System, p. 114.) 

When the earth ceases to be free, the new 
(born) members of the population depend for 
their subsistence upon the good-will of the Capi- 
talist class, that is to say, upon the increase of 
profit, which it consents to distribute, under the 
form of food, among other classes. But until 
profit is raised, these increases of profit, which 
are spent in food, are sufficient to maintain the 
new members of the population, but must be 
divided into two parts, one of which keeps the 
worker, the other the mendicants, since these last 
are necessary to capital, in order to guarantee the 
continuance of the minimum salary and of (maxi- 
mum) profit. Hence, there is formed a syste- 
matic excess of population not over food, but 
over capital (p. 133, Loria). This is practically 
a re-statement of K. Marx's assertion, that upon 
every Capitalistic organization weighs the neces- 



THE CAUSES OF POVERTY. 105 

sity, at the risk of its peril, of producing arti- 
ficially a systematic excess of population. (Das 
Kapital, p. 645 and following.) 

The intrinsic cause which drove the capitalist 
class to originate by every means and every ex- 
pedient the rapid and abundant birth-rate of the 
wage-earning classes is simply the necessity of 
securing the persistence of profit. Indeed, we see 
that when wages are about the minimum and the 
persistence of profit is endangered, the capitalist 
class devises every means, and tries every way to 
impel the wage-earners to a great fecundity. 
(Loria, Vol. I, pp. 615-693, and Vol. II, pp. 
380-416.) 

They (the capitalists) leave nothing untried — 
advice, influence by inducement, and even cor- 
ruption of manners are resorted to. And that 
which finally drives the wage-earner to this is 
the utter impossibility of a provident life and the 
need of finding in the work of women and chil- 
dren a margin to compensate for the decrease of 
the wages of adults. (Nitti, Population, etc., pp. 

I34-I35-) 
When the permanence of profit is menaced by 

the slight proportion between births and deaths, 
the capitalist class restricts the demand for work 
and occasions pauperism, and hence the abundant 
and disordered birth rate, which is its fatal con- 
sequence (loco citato, p. 135). In England, as 
in every industrial country, the wages of women 
and children supplemented insufficient w r ages of 
the adult. Then the laboring classes, compelled 
by necessity, abandoned the prudent foresight, 
which it had maintained centuries, and multiplied 
itself without bounds. But when the laws forbid 
child labor which menaces the decay of the race, 



IG>6 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

the employers have already attained their end, 
the reduction of the wages of the adult, (p. 

The birth rate is determined by the economic 
form. In a country where the irregularity of 
distribution of wealth is very great, and there 
exists a large class of wage earners, the birth rate 
tends to be disordered and abundant. On the 
contrary, in a country where social (national) 
wealth is greatly subdivided (as in France) and 
the number of small possessors large, the birth 
rate tends to be slight, (p. 139.) 

When*wages tend to increase and the workers 
have a chance and even sometimes the hope of 
ease, the capitalist class, seeing itself menaced, 
tends to change a great part of capital from pro- 
ductive into unproductive. And thus it originates 
and grows an entire parasitical class whose only 
function is to crystallize wages and secure the 
permanence of profit, (p. 140.) 

The worker of the day is led by two motives 
to an improvident fecundity. On the one hand, 
he very soon arrives at the ultimate limit of 
aspirations, the apex of his career, hence every 
effort of ulterior improvement, and, indeed, every 
idea of foresight is completely thrown aside, 
while on the other hand, the possibility of em- 
ploying children in factories leads to the idea 
of increasing the income of his family by in- 
creasing the number of his family. (Le Popula- 
tion, Loria, p. 74.) 

A great birth rate always anszvers to a great 
depression of the working classes, to smallness 
of wages, to a bad distribution of wealth. (Nitti, 
p. 1 59.) The great merit of K. Marx — a merit 
allowed him even by his great opposer, Lujo 



THE CAUSES OF POVERTY. IO7 

Brentano — consists in having shown the falsity 
of the thesis, according to which, wages are con- 
sidered dependent upon the excess existing in 
single industries, (p. 160.) 

The fact is that the severest poverty has almost 
always occurred in countries and at times when 
the means of subsistence sufficed for the popula- 
tion, and even far exceeded it. (p. 165.) 

In the United States of America capital often 
restricts the demand for labor and produces in 
the greatest period of the development of the 
public wealth, a decrease of wages, the multiplic- 
ity of men without work, and pauperism. (Loria 
loco citato.) 

Nitti states the new demographic law as fol- 
lows: 

Given the constitution of modern society, the 
economic situation does not depend upon the in- 
crease of the population but, on the contrary, not 
only the number of those who live, but even the 
number of those zvho are bom, depend upon the 
economic situation. 

Every improvement of the condition, every 
diffusion of wealth, every increase of wages, and 
of the standard of living, exercises a useful in- 
fluence on the birth rate. 

Hence, nothing is more certain to fix limits 
to the birth rate than high wages and diffusion 
of ease. (p. 162.) 

As in animal struggle for existence parasitical 
species are deeply injured by the decrease of the 
species upon which they prey and subsist — the 
parasitical classes of human society are injured 
by a decreased birth rate in the productive 
classes. 

All the talk about over-population as a cause 



108 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

of poverty of the proletariat is not only a per- 
version of truth, but a malicious falsehood com- 
ing with ill grace from those who are directly 
profiting from the same artificial over-population 
and do all they can to produce it. It is con- 
temptible cant. 

Another alleged cause of poverty is insufficient 
production of commodities. This represents an- 
other paraphrase of Malthusianism. 

In order to do full justice to the analysis of this 
alleged cause we have to review the industrial 
evolution of the United States. Such a review 
was published by a high authority on the subject 
in question, the United States Commissioner of 
Labor, Carrol D. Wright; and we will follow 
his exposition in our investigation as far as 
statistical data are concerned. 



THE INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION OF THE 
UNITED STATES. 

Among the first European settlers of North 
America the simple production of useful articles 
(commodities) prevailed. The producers worked 
independently from each other at their own homes 
with their own tools and raw materials. The 
product of labor constituted the individual prop- 
erty of each producer. Social-economic relations 
in the colonies were, however, too complex to 
allow the direct exchange of commodities be- 
tween various producers. The commodities were 
disposed of on the open market with the aid of a 
class of middlemen, who appropriated the lion's 
share of the product in the shape of profit. Only 
two distinct forms of accumulated wealth, the 
merchants' and money lenders' capital, was 
handed down by the middle ages. The feudal sys- 
tem in the country and the guilds in the towns 
of England hindered the mediaeval capital from 
turning into industrial capital. The American 
colonists naturally followed the conditions and 
circumstances of the mother country. Individual 
production could not, however, satisfy the eco- 
nomic needs of the growing colonies for a long 
period of time. The stringent legislation of the 
English government, putting an export duty on 
woolen broadcloth and prohibiting the exporta- 
tion of sheep, wool and woolen yarn from Eng- 
land, stimulated the colonists to the development 
of home manufacture of woolen goods. Many la- 
109 



110 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

borers were assembled in one workshop and under 
the personal direction of the employer produced 
goods, passing the article from hand to hand on 
its way to completion. A certain crude division 
of labor was essential to this stage of social pro- 
duction. And yet the handicraft, the personal 
skill of the highly trained laborers, made up the 
foundation of the manufacturing form of co-op- 
eration. The actual productive factors were men, 
not as yet the tools of production, machinery. 
The manufacturing period lasted approximately 
from 1656 to 1789, when the new constitution 
went into effect. As in the case of the manufac- 
turing system, the narrowly-selfish policy of the 
English government stimulated the industrial de- 
velopment of North America. The mainsprings 
of the rapid abandonment of the manufacturing 
system in favor of the more perfect factory sys- 
tem of production were the successful applica- 
tions of the principles of theoretical science to the 
actual problems and needs of production by such 
inventors as Hargreaves, Arkwright and Dr. Ed- 
ward Cartwright. 

We will have a chance to analyze the machine 
production later on more fully. At present it will 
suffice to state that one of the most characteristic 
features of the capitalistic or machine production 
consists in the divorce between the actual pro- 
ducer and his tools of production. The main fac- 
tor in manufacturing production was the skilled 
laborer who worked with relatively crude tools. 
Under capitalistic production the main factor is 
the highly perfected tool of production — the ma- 
chine. One of the necessary conditions for the ap- 
pearance, growth and development of modern 
machine production is the existence of a free 



THE INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION. Ill 

laborer, who would sell his labor power, the sum 
total of his mental and physical faculties, for a 
definite time, for the purpose of producing useful 
articles. This free laborer has to be compelled 
by social economic conditions to sell the com- 
modity called labor-power as a means of subsist- 
ence for him and his family. It is obvious that 
the existence of the institution of slavery in the 
Southern States made the growth and develop- 
ment of capitalistic production impossible. The 
economically advanced Northern States possessed 
a class of free laborers or proletarians, but they 
could not compete in the world's market with 
the free labor of slaves in the South. The move- 
ment for the abolition of African slavery must be 
considered as a great labor movement, it was a 
movement against free slave labor and in favor of 
a more advanced economic system. The Civil 
War was an industrial struggle between the be- 
lated agricultural South and the economically 
advanced North. The abolition of African slav- 
ery cleared the way for the rapid development of 
the machine production and turned the United 
States into the most typical capitalistic country of 
the world. The economical development of the 
United States since i860 has no precedent in the 
history of humankind. 

The United States census of the year i860 
reported the capital invested in mechanical and 
manufacturing industries as $1,009,855,715 and 
the products as $1,855,861,679. In 1890 the total 
capital invested in mechanical and manufacturing 
industries advanced to $6,525,156,456 and the 
value of the products to $9,372,437,283, an in- 
crease of 546 per cent in capital and 397 per cent 
in product. The per capita value of products for 



112 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

1890 amounted to $149. If we add to the manu- 
facturing the products of mining, agricultural 
products and fishery products we have a grand 
aggregate of $12,464,052,913 or $198 per capita. 
(Industrial Evolution in the United States, by 
Carrol D. Wright, 1895, pp. 159, 160.) 

This marvelous development of the resources 
of the country finds its explanation in the ad- 
vanced methods of machine-production as com- 
pared with hand-production. 

The thirteenth annual report of the United 
States commissioner of labor presents some ex- 
ceedingly valuable statistics on the subject. The 
report embraces all kinds of industries and is 
quite complete in itself. We rearranged the fig- 
ures of the report for the sake of comprehensi- 
bility, so as to contain under one single heading 
all operations of manufacture, which were sub- 
jected to the same contraction in time in conse- 
quence of introduction of machinery as follows. 

The time of production was shortened under 
machine labor comparatively with hand labor to 
about two-thirds in the manufacture of flower 
pots ; three- fourths in the manufacture of pocket- 
books ; one-half in the manufacture of neckties, 
brooms, collar and cuff boxes, flask cartons, shoe 
brushes, jars, clock cases, corks, scythes, design- 
ing (engraving), dried prunes, hammocks, kin- 
dling wood, labels, cup plungers (leather), kid 
leather, saddles, saws, soup tureens (silver), cups 
(tin), tobacco (chewing), shovels, awnings, flags, 
tents, and in the mining of bituminous coal ; one- 
third in men's hats, sewer pipe, brick, buttons 
(vegetable ivory), divan frames, tops (carriages), 
sleighs, hatchets, mantles, engraving, boxes (sus- 
pender), wood cuts, diamond cuttings, chairs, 



THE INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION. II3 

electrotyping, lockets (gold), faucets, sheet music, 
bread pans (tin), and sails; one-fourth in bags 
(other than paper), bookbinding, buttons (bone, 
brace), wagons, barrels, shotguns, bureaus (fur- 
niture), desks, pins (gold), ladders (wooden), 
marble (cutting), blinds, screens (window), 
sauce pans, wash basins (tin), screw drivers, 
chemises (woman's underwear), typewriting 
(copying), quarrying (granite) ; one-fifth in 
shoes (men's brogans), buggies, watch cases, 
shears, handkerchiefs, chair frames, bolts (iron), 
nuts (steel), cuff buttons, lasts, brown prints, 
milk pans (tin), cans (tin, tomato), chisels and 
spokes (wheel) ; one-sixth in rakes (steel), shoes 
(women's), boxes (tobacco), springs, hooks 
(brush), cleavers, lounges, chains (gold), gran- 
ite (groving), netting, doors, harness, under- 
skirts and window guards (springs) ; one-sev- 
enth in gold leaf (cutting), boxes (shoe), collars, 
brackets, teaspoons (silver), wire (gold), tables, 
mattresses (spring), rods (fishing), springs (fur- 
niture), measures (tin) ; one-eighth in shoes 
(men's calf), buttons (brass), carpets and boxes 
(pill) ; one-ninth in button molds, boots (men's 
pegged), boots (women's cheap), carpet (sew- 
ing), combs, rifle stocks and tips, sideboards, 
hats (women's), hair pins (silver), air chambers 
and float balls, tobacco (smoking), nail clippers, 
wheels and shirts ; one-tenth in boxes (baking 
powder), files, rings (gold), marble urns and 
vases, posters and men's clothing; one-eleventh 
in gravel transportation; one-twelfth in rakes 
(wooden), boots (women's fine), rivets, type and 
butter; one-thirteenth in bags (paper), railroad 
tickets (printing), axles (carriage), washers, 
granite (dressing), hymn books (printing), shin- 



114 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

gles and hammers ; one- fourteenth in envelopes, 
bedsteads, coffee pots (tin), one-fifteenth in 
spring clips and spring hangers; one-sixteenth 
in seals, pitchforks, collar buttons, threading pipe, 
canning fruit, cigars, dash boards and iron pipe, 
wrought. And so on. 

Machinery has lowered the cost of production, 
but the hand method of production is still exten- 
sive, though steadily going out of use. Some 
comparisons are made as follows: Ten plows, 
which cost $5446 by hand labor, and which em- 
ployed two men for 1,108 hours, cost when made 
by machinery $7.90, employing 52 men for a 
total of 37 hours 28 minutes. One hundred blank 
books cost, when made by hand, $219.79 and 
employed 3 men for 1,272 hours; they cost, when 
made by machinery, $69.97, employing 20 men 
for a total of 245 hours. Ruling 100 reams of 
paper cost, when done by hand, $400, and em- 
ployed 1 person 4,800 hours ; when done by ma- 
chinery it cost 85 cents and employed 2 persons 
for 2 hours and 45 minutes. 

The increase in the principal industries (tex- 
tiles, clothing, lumber, iron and steel, leather, 
boots and shoes, flour and meal, sugar, pepper, 
printing and publishing, carriages and wagons, 
foundry and machine shop products, and liquors, 
distilled and malt), forming over 60 per cent of 
the total product for all industries. 

The total capital invested in the several 
branches of the textile manufacture increased 
from $150,080,852 in i860 to $739,973,661 in 
1890, or 393 per cent, while the value of product 
increased from $214,740,614 to $721,949,252, or 
236 per cent. 

There were 1,091 establishments engaged in 



THE INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION. II5 

the manufacture of cotton in i860, with an aver- 
age product of $106,033 and an average of 4,799 
spindles per establishment during the same pe- 
riod. 

In 1890 there were 905 establishments with an 
average product of $296,112 and an average of 
15,677 spindles, an. increase of 179 per cent in 
the product and of 22y per cent in the number of 
spindles per establishment. During the same pe- 
riod the aggregate capital invested in the industry 
increased from $98,585,269 to $354,020,843, or 
259 per cent, and the value of product from $115,- 
681,774 to $267,981,724, or 132 per cent. 

The capital invested in the different branches 
of wool manufacture increased from $38,814,422 
to $245,886,743, or 533 per cent, and the product 
from $73,454,000 to $270,527,511, or 268 per cent. 

There were 213 establishments engaged in the 
manufacture of carpets in i860 with a capital of 
$4,721,768 and a product valued at $7,857,636. 
In 1890 the capital increased to $38,208,842 and 
the product to $47,770,193, while the number of 
establishments decreased to 173. The total num- 
ber of running yards of carpet in 1890 increased 
90 per cent. 

The total capital invested in silk manufacture 
in i860 amounted only to $2,926,980 and the 
value of products to $6,607,771, being about 13 
per cent of the entire consumption for that year. 
In 1890 the home factories produced 55 per cent 
of the total consumption, the product being valued 
at $87,298,454, while the capital invested in the 
industry had increased to $51,007,537. 

There were 3,968 establishments reported in 
i860 as engaged in the manufacture of women's 
and men's clothing, with a capital of $26,386,443 



Il6 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

and a product of $80,758,344. The number of 
establishments had increased to 19,882, the cap- 
ital to $203,812,466 and the value of product to 
$446,186,834 in 1890. There were 12,487 estab- 
lishments reported in i860 engaged in the pro- 
duction of footwear, with a capital of $23,358,527 
and a product of $91,891,498. In 1889, 1,959 
factories were reported with a capital of $42,994,- 
028 and a product of $166,050,354, the total num- 
ber of boots and shoes of all kinds manufactured 
during the year amounting to 125,478,511 pairs. 
In 1890 the capital invested in the industry 
amounted to $117,923,375 and a product of $280,- 
215,185. The total number of boots and shoes in- 
creased in 1890 43 per cent over 1880. 

According to the United States Census of i860 
there were 16,956 establishments, with a capital 
of $104,927,586 and a yearly product valued at 
$323,023,593, engaged in the manufacture of va- 
rious forms of food product. The grand aggre- 
gate for 1890 was 41,608 establishments, with a 
capital of $524,669,429 and a product of $1,647,- 
477,291. The annual product for each of the 
four principal branches of the industry, viz: 
bread, crackers and other bakery products, flour 
and grist mill products, slaughtering and meat 
packing, and sugar and molasses refining, exceeds 
$100,000,000. The manufacture of bakery prod- 
ucts reported for i860 amounted to $16,980,012 
and for 1890 $128,621,535. The capital invested 
in the production of flour, meal and other prod- 
ucts of the grist mill in the United States in 
i860 amounted to $84,585,004 and the product to 
$248,580,365. In 1890 the capital was $208,473,- 
500 and the product $513,971,474, being an in- 



THE INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION. 117 

crease of 146 per cent in capital and 107 per cent 
in the value of the product. 

In 1870 there was invested in the meat pack- 
ing and slaughtering industry a capital of $22,- 
124,787 and a product of $62,140,439. The cap- 
ital increased to $116,887,504 and the product to 
$561,611,668. 

The same increase applies to the manufactur- 
ing of cheese, butter, etc., etc. No branch of 
industry profited so much from the introduction 
of progressive methods as the iron and steel in- 
dustry. 

The capital invested and value of product in- 
creased from i860 to 1890 from $48,372,897 to 
$414,044,844 and from $57,160,243 to $478,687,- 
519, respectively. The value of products in- 
creased from $207,208,696 in 1870 to $296,557,- 
685 in 1880, or 43 per cent, while the quality of 
products increased 99 per cent. During the ten 
years from 1880 to 1890 the value of products 
increased from $296,557,685 to $478,687,519, or 
61 per cent, and the tons of products increased 
151 per cent. 

Quite instructive are the data about the petro- 
leum industry in the United States. In 1880 86 
establishments were reported with a capital of 
$27,325,746 and a product valued at $43,705,218. 
In 1889 the number of establisments had in- 
creased to 94, the capital to $77,416,296 and the 
value of product to $85,001,198. 

The development of industry manifested itself 
likewise in the increase of capital invested and 
value of product in the manufacture of lumber, 
brick and tile and articles from gutta percha. 

In conclusion we will mention the printing and 
publishing industry. In i860 printing and pub- 



Il8 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

lishing — including newspapers, periodicals, books 
and job printing — were reported by 1,666 estab- 
lishments with a captial of $19,622,318 and a 
product of $31,063,898. In 1890 there were 16,- 
566 establishments reported for the same industry 
with a capital of $195,387,445 and a product of 
$275,452,515. 

The total production of the United States dur- 
ing the constitutional period, covering one hun- 
dred years of census taking, have been extended 
from twenty millions of dollars, as estimated for 
first census (1790), to $9,372,437,283 in 1890. 

In the distribution of this vast product for 1890 
among the States, the State of New York leads 
with a product of $1,711,577,671, while Pennsyl- 
vania is second in line. Then comes Illinois. 
(Ibidem, pp. 160, 188.) 

The value of natural products can be stated in 
figures for the year 1889. In that year the farms 
gave $2,460,107,454 worth of products for the 
support of the people of the United States, The 
value of the products of all mining industries was 
$587,230,662, of the fisheries, $44,277,514; and 
of forests, $446,034,761. The total value of all 
these natural resources for the year 1889 was 
$3,537,650,391. The wealth of the country, in- 
cluding land, buildings, merchandise and all 
forms of real and personal property, in 1890 
amounted to $65,037,091,197, of which amount 
$39,544,544,333 represents the value of real estate 
and improvements thereon, and $25,492,546 that 
of personal property, including railroads, mines 
and quarries. 

In 1830 only 23 miles of railroads were oper- 
ated in the United States, while in 1890 there 
were 163,597 niiles, and in 1893 there were 173,- 



THE INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION, II9 

433 miles. The population for each decennial 
census of the United States was as follows : 

Census year. Population. Per cent increase. 

1790 3,929,214 

1800 5,308,483 35-10 

1810 7,239,88i 36.38 

1820 9,633,822 33.07 

1830 12,866,020 33.55 

1840 17,069,453 32.67 

1850 23,191,876 35.87 

i860 3i,443,32i 35-58 

1870 38,558,371 22.63 

1880 50,155,783. 30.08 

1890 62,622,250 

(pp. 13, 75.) 

The influence of machinery on the producers 
consists in their displacement on one side, and 
opening for them new fields of activity on the 
other. In the manufacture of agricultural imple- 
ments new machinery has, in the opinion of some 
of the best manufacturers of such implements, 
displaced full fifty per cent of the muscular labor 
formerly employed, as, for instance, hammers 
and dies have done away with the most particular 
labor on the plow. (p. 326.) 

It would require from fifty to one hundred 
million persons in this country working under 
the old system to produce the goods made and 
the w r ork performed by the workers of to-day 
with the aid of machinery, (p. 334.) 

Ray Stannard Baker in his book "Our New 
Prosperity/' published in 1900, draws a splendid 
picture of the national economic conditions in the 
United States. 

"It was in 1898 that the United States ex- 
ceeded Great Britain for the first time in the 
totals of her domestic export. In the following 



120 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

year the foreign business of the United States 
passed for the first time in her history beyond 
two billion dollars, and her profits, — that is, — the 
excess of exports over imports, more than four 
hundred and seventy-six million dollars. In other 
words the United States in 1899 provided food, 
clothing and shelter, great quantities of foreign 
as well as domestic goods sufficient for comforta- 
ble and even luxurious living for her people, and 
sold abroad goods at the rate of a million and a 
half dollars in cash for every working day. All 
other great nations of the earth, except Russia, 
are heavy losers by their foreign business ; they 
buy so much more than they sell ; whereas the 
United States has made a profit since 1892 of over 
two billions of dollars." (p. 3.) 

Eighteen ninety-nine will go down in commer- 
cial history as the notable year in which the 
United States may be said to have ceased being 
a debtor nation and became a creditor nation. 
This was a year of extraordinary records also in 
the domestic business of the United States, which 
has long been of greater volume by millions of 
dollars a year than that of any other nation. 

The bank clearings, one of the surest indica- 
tions of the volume of the country's business, 
were billions of dollars greater they ever were 
before in the history of the nation. In five years 
from 1894 to 1899 th e y more than doubled. 
From 1898 to 1899 they increased by 33 per cent, 
and 1898 was itself a remarkable year. The rail- 
roads never experienced such prosperity, the year 
1899 showing the smallest number of receiver- 
ships with two exceptions since 1876 and larger 
earnings than ever before. Never was there such 
an expansion in the various manufacturing indus- 



THE INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION. 121 

tries. Steel rails doubled in price between Feb- 
ruary and August; cotton became a profitable 
crop, copper made unprecedented raises. And 
never before was there so much money in circu- 
lation in the country, either in volume or in per 
capita distribution; and never before were the 
totals in the people's savings in the banks so 
enormous. It was also a year of extraordinary 
coal, gold, iron ore, lumber, copper and corn pro- 
duction, the year of the most profitable lake and 
coastwise steamer traffic since the civil war, and 
by all odds the greatest year of business and prof- 
its on the Stock Exchange, (pp. 4, 5, 6.) 

Great increase in gold production. — M. L. 
Muhlman, United States Assistant Treasurer in 
New York, prepared an exceedingly valuable 
table comparing the stock of gold of all European 
banks of issue with the entire stock in the United 
States. 

Gold in the European Banks Gold in the 

of issue. United States. 

Jan. 1st, 1897 $1,591,000,000 $ 693,000,000 

" 1898 1,749,000,000 745,000,000 

" 1899 1,632,000,000 949,000,000 

" 1900 1,595,000,000 1,016,000,000 

It will be seen from this table that while Europe 
gained only $4,000,000 between 1897 and 1900, 
and actually lost in the year 1899, the United 
States gained the enormous sum of $323,000,000, 
making the total stock of gold only one-third 
smaller than that of the combined banks of 
Europe, (pp. 28, 29.) 

Advance in per capita circulation. — Back in 
i860 if the money of the United States could 
have been divided up, giving an equal share to 
every man, woman and child in the country, there 



122 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

would have been $13.85 for each. By 1880 this 
per capita share of the circulation was $19.41 and 
in 1890 it was $22.82. It rose to $24.28 in 1894. 
On February 1, 1900, it reached its climax of 
$25.98, the highest in the history of the nation, 
(pp. 29-31.) A glance at the number of commer- 
cial failures as recorded by Dun's Review, will 
show how they decreased from over 15,000 in 
1893, with an enormous total of liabilities of 
nearly $347,000,000, to only 9,337 failures in 
1899, with liabilities of less than $91,000,000. 

(p.51.) 

United States as a food producer. — It is esti- 
mated that we grow 80 per cent of the entire corn 
crop of the world and consume most of it at 
home. Of wheat, "the world's food," we are the 
greatest producers among the nations, surpass- 
ing our nearest rival, Russia, in 1898 by over 
200,000,000 bushels. Our crops are over one- 
third of that of all Europe, and almost a quarter 
of that of the entire world. We have been ex- 
porting for several years past more wheat than is 
raised either in Hungary or Germany,, and more 
than the total production of the continent of 
South America, including the vast fields of Ar- 
gentine. Of oats, the United States raises more 
than any other country, and we also produce 
large quantities of barley and rye, although not 
as much as Europe produces. 

In meat production our record is quite as satis- 
factory. We own about one-third of all the swine 
in the world. The value of pork exported in 1898 
and 1899 amounted to $110,000,000 each year. 

The United States is the greatest cattle raiser 
among the nations, the total number of head be- 
ing now nearly 45,000,000, or between one-sixth 



THE INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION. I23 

and one-seventh of the entire stock in the world. 
In the matter of mutton production we do not 
make as good a showing as in cattle raising, 
Australia, Russia, and Argentine exceeding us, 
but still we own about one-sixteenth of the 
world's sheep, more than enough to furnish us 
with all the mutton that we can use. Thus of the 
food staples, bread, meat, butter, milk, as well as 
vegetables and fruit, we are the most extensive 
producers, for we not only feed ourselves, but 
help to supply our neighbors. 

As a clothing producer America is abundantly 
able to clothe her population without assistance 
from foreign nations. 

In 1899 America's output of iron and steel 
products was about 40 per cent of the world's 
total. 

In 1899 the United States took her place as the 
greatest coal producing country. Her output 
constitutes more than one-third of the world's 
supply, and it not only satisfies her own enormous 
requirements, but helps to supply the foreign 
market as w^ell. 

The annual output of petroleum amounts to 
2,500,000 gallons or half of the total output of 
the world. 

United States has the greatest mileage of rail- 
roads, the greatest amount of freight transported 
and the most extensive marine traffic. 

In the matter of national debt the United 
States is less hampered than any other great na- 
tion, having a smaller national debt than even 
Italy or Spain." (pp. 246-253.) 

The review of the economic growth and devel- 
opment of the United States indicates beyond the 
shadow of a doubt that inadequate production of 



124 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

commodities, or insufficient national wealth, can- 
not be considered as causes of poverty. Poverty 
exists in the United States in spite of the growth 
of wealth of the entire nation unprecedented in 
the history of humanity. The striking contrast 
between the great wealth of the nation and the 
poverty of the toiling masses suggests to us that 
there must be something abnormal in the dis- 
tribution of the national wealth among the classes 
on one side and the masses on the other, and that 
this inequality in the distribution of wealth may 
give us the key to the explanation of the causes 
of poverty. 

We will first see what Carrol D. Wright has to 
say on the subject of the number of persons em- 
ployed in the various branches of production and 
their wages. (See his "Industrial Evolution.") 

"The number of men and women reported em- 
ployed in 1850 was 957,059 or 4.13 per cent of the 
entire population. In i860, 4.17 per cent; in 
J 870, 5-33 P er cent; in 1880, 5.45 per cent; in 
1890, 7.35 per cent of the entire population. If 
the percentage for 1890 is based on the population 
of fifteen years ago and over it will be found that 
those having mechanical or manufacturing occu- 
pations amount to 12.61 per cent of the total. 

The total amount of wages for 1850 was re- 
ported as $236,755,464. In 1890 the number of 
wage earners is reported as 4,712,622 and the 
wages as $2,283,216,529; reducing the figures to a 
comparable basis, the figures show an increase of 
347.88 per cent in numbers and JOJ.22 per cent 
in total wages over 1850. During the same pe- 
riod the average annual earnings per employee 
increased from $249.38 to $445.85, being an in- 
crease of 198.47 or 80.22 per cent. 



THE INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION. 1 25 

The net value (i. e., the value remaining after 
deducting the cost of materials, the value added 
to the raw material by labor) is a very interesting 
indication of industrial development. 

For all the industries in the United States the 
data show that in 1850 51 per cent of the net 
value was assigned to labor and in 1890 45 per 
cent. (p. 192.) In the thirty years from i860 
to 1890 the proportion of net products assigned 
to labor in the shoe manufacturing industry de- 
creased from 63 to 53 per cent, the annual earn- 
ings increased to 447.44; the net product in- 
creased 171 per cent; and the capital required for 
one dollar of net product to eighty-eight cents. 

The average number of men, women and chil- 
dren engaged in mechanical and manufacturing 
industries was 3,492,029, receiving $1,590,997,000 
wages, the number being 74 per cent of the total 
wages. The men numbered 2,881,795, receiving 
$1,436,482,387 as wages. The women numbered 
505,712, receiving $139,329,719 as wages; the 
/children numbered 104,522, receiving $14,704,891 
as wages. The annual average earnings for men 
was $498, for women $276 and for children $141. 
(p. 199.) 

Indicated decimally the increase in average 
wages from i860 has been from 82.5 in 1840 to 
168.6 in 1890. 

Of course the purchasing power of the wages 
and the change in the standard of living may have 
made this increase rather illusory. 

Carrol D. Wright's exposition on that score 
does not seem to us conclusive, (p. 227.) 

Carrol D. Wright's and other data of official 
statistics we quote below claim that prices de- 
clined to a level lower than in 1840, while the 



126 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

wages increased to fabulous proportions. This 
seems to be far too optimistic. In the sixteenth 
annual report of the Massachusetts Bureau of 
Statistics of Labor there are quotations of prices 
of commodities covering the period from 1752 to 
1883 and a general comparison from 1830 to i860. 
It appears that from 1830 to i860 agricultural 
products advanced in price 62.8 per cent; burn- 
ing oils and fluids, 29 per cent ; candle and soap, 
42.6 per cent ; dairy products, 38.8 per cent ; fish, 
9.8 per cent; flour and meal, 26 per cent; fuel 
(wood), 54.4 per cent; meats, 53 per cent. 

It is true that prices on manufactured goods — 
boots, shoes, clothing, dress goods and dry goods 
--—correspondingly declined. The working men, 
however, use comparatively little of manufactured 
goods, while they cannot get along without a 
fixed quantity of food products. Especially note- 
worthy is the enormous increase in rent. H. L. 
Bliss, contributor of statistical articles to the 
Journal of Political Economy and American 
Journal of Sociology, in his pamphlet "Plutoc- 
racy's Statistics," subjects the official statistics to 
a most rigid criticism, especially wage statistics, 
and proves that the data about wages and prices 
are doctored "in the most unscrupulous manner 
in the interest of plutocracy." After having re- 
jected the official data as intentionally falsified 
he presents his own figures, which we. quote here. 

The Massachusetts report regarding manufac- 
turing industries for 1897 (p. 174) presents com- 
parative statistics for 4,695 identical establish- 
ments for the years 1896 and 1897, showing aver- 
age annual earnings of $426.66 in the former and 
$421.69 in the latter year. The average time 
worked was 281.03 days in the former and 283.33 



THE INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION. 12J 

in the latter year. Thus there was $5 less pay and 
two days' more work. 

The report for 1898 (p. 72) gives statistics 
of 4,701 establishments for the years 1897 and 
1898, which show average annual earnings as 
$422.26 in 1897 and $421.48 in 1898. The work- 
ing time increased from 284.05 days to 286.28 
days. Thus there was paid 79 cents less for over 
two more days' work. 

The Massachusetts report for 1899 shows that 
in 4,740 establishments there was an increase in 
average annual earnings from $419.91 in 1898 
to $427.71 in 1899, and that the average time 
worked was 286.27 days in 1898 and 294.14 days 
in 1899. Thus for 7.87 days' more work there 
was an increase in pay for the year of $7.80. 
This indicates a slight decrease in per diem 
wages. 

The decrease occurred notwithstanding the fact 
of a greater increase in male than in female em- 
ployees; the increase was, males, 10.6 per cent; 
females, 7.63 per cent. The increase in number 
of employees of both sexes was 9.58 per cent. 
In 1898 the increase in the number of employees 
was 1.80 per cent. In 1897 it was 2^2 per cent. 

The Pennsylvania report for 1898 gives com- 
parative statistics of 961 identical establishments 
for the years 1896, 1897 and 1898, but the report 
of 1899 makes comparison of but 855 establish- 
ments. It seems somewhat singular to find 
omitted all of the establishments of the clothing 
industry, nine in number. It does not seem pos- 
sible that the whole nine could have gone out of 
business. The average daily wages in these es- 
tablishments, having 3,105 employees, was, ac- 
cording to the report of 1898, but 66 cents. This 



128 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

and other omissions from the li§t of establish- 
ments for which comparison is made, seems to 
have been due to the purpose of obtaining a 
higher average wage for 1899. The following 
shows the average number of days the establish- 
ments were in operation, the average annual earn- 
ings and daily wages for 855 establishments as 
given in the report of the secretary of Internal 
Affairs of Pennsylvania (part 3). 

Days in operation. Average annual Daily wages. 

earnings. 

1896 268 $409.81 $1.33 

1897 276 382.94 1.39 

1898 286 398.69 1.39 

1899 288 432.49 1.50 

It should be understood that the average an- 
nual earnings is obtained in both Massachu- 
setts and Pennsylvania reports by dividing 
the total wages by the average number of 
employees, and represents the average an- 
nual earning of only those operatives who 
are employed during the whole time the estab- 
lishment is in operation. It will be noticed 
that while the average wages, as well as average 
earnings, were higher in 1899 than in 1898, the 
average wages were lower than in 1896. Thus 
we have in 1899 an increase in per diem wages, 
according to the Pennsylvania report, and a de- 
crease according to that of Massachusetts. Aver- 
ages are, however, often deceiving. 

The Massachusetts reports cover nearly every 
manufacturing establishment in the state of any 
importance and therefore come nearer reflecting 
the condition of wage-earners generally than 
could be done by the comparison for a few estab- 
lishments. 



THE INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION. 1 29 

The Pennsylvania report shows a larger in- 
crease in the number of those employed in the 
higher paid industries, notably in iron and steel 
production. As we have already discovered, the 
statistician has dropped establishments from the 
comparison that might show an increase in the 
lowest paid employees. Let us, however, take a 
single industry, one in which there has been a 
boom, largely owing to foreign demand. Taking 
the pig iron industry we find the following fig- 
ures: 

Days in operation. Average annual Daily wages. 

earnings. 
1896 289 $396.30 $1.37 

1897 306 414.92 1.36 

1898 326 442.32 1.32 

1899 327 496.18 1.51 

This seems quite favorable to the wage earner, 
for he gets nearly $100 more for his year's work 
than in 1896, though working 38 days more to 
obtain it. This is what he gets. Let us see what 
is the increased value which his labor produces 
and which he does not get. 

The following figures are brought together 
from page 513 of this report: 

1896. 1899. 

Average realized value per ton. .$11.21 $15.01 

Average cost of basic material 6.52 5.94 

Average cost of labor per ton 1.14 1.16 

Thus labor receives an increase of 2 cents per 
ton while the employer realized an increased mar- 
gin between selling price and cost of labor and 
material of $4.36 per ton. 

Compared with the reports of earlier years, ac- 
cording to the Massachusetts manufacturing re- 



I30 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

turns, the average annual earnings decreased 
from 1892 to 1898 $30.73 and such earnings were 
one-third of a dollar less in 1898 than in 1894, 
the year following the disastrous panic of 1893, 
a panic which, though world-wide, may, in a 
measure at least, be attributed to legislation, (pp. 
24, 25 and 26.) The most reliable statistics indi- 
cate not only a fall in wages since the panic of 
1893, but that there has been an almost continuous 
decline from the high wages preceding the panic 
of 1873. 

Especially deplorable are the wages earned by 
women. 

Riis (in his "Other Half/' etc., p. 241) states 
for New York City as follows. Sixty cents is put 
as the average day's earnings of the 150,000 
(working girls and women), but into this compu- 
tation enters the stylish "cashier" two dollars a 
day as well as the thirty cents of the poor little 
girl who pulls thread in an East Side factory, 
and, if anything, the average is probably too high. 
Such as it is, however, it represents board, rent, 
clothing and "pleasure" to this army of workers. 
Here is the case of a woman employed in the 
manufacturing department of a Broadway house. 
She is typical of a hundred other women. 
She averages $3 (three) a week. She pays $1.50 
for her room, for breakfast she has a cup of cof- 
fee. Lunch she cannot afford, one meal a day is 
her allowance. This woman is young and she is 
pretty. She has the "world before her." (p. 
241.) 

The Fourth Annual Report of the Commis- 
sioner of Labor, 1885, "Working Women in 
Large Cities," contains the following data: 
"Seventeen thousand four hundred and twenty- 



THE INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION. I3I 

seven working women living in 22 cities of the 
United States w r ere interviewed by the agents of 
of the Department of Labor. The cities selected 
are thoroughly representative of different parts of 
the country, including the South, the North and 
West, the Middle States, the Pacific coast and 
the Atlantic slope.. As six to seven per cent of 
the actual number of women in the employments 
considered in these cities were treated of in the 
report, the results of the last may be considered 
as fairly illustrative of the condition of the entire 
class of toiling womanhood. From the 17,427 
only 6 were children under 10 years of age, and 
247 of the number had begun work before they 
were 10; four were 10 years old, and 337 had be- 
gun at 10; 16 were 11, and 964 had begun at 11 ; 
48 were 12, and 1,388 had begun at twelve; 236 
were 13, and 2,502 had begun at 13; over one- 
sixth were 16 or under, and 13,505 had begun at 
16 or under. More of the girls were 18 than of 
any other age. The average age at work was 22 
years and 7 months ; the average age for begin- 
ning 15 years and 4 months. The number who 
worked after they were 30 years old was 267; 
and those who worked after 40 was 76. Ten 
thousand four hundred and fifty-six of the girls 
had attended public schools, and 5,375 had been 
in other schools. That the school training they 
received was not of a high order can be judged 
by the fact that 947 girls who reported that they 
attended school could not read an easy sentence. 
The report suggests the conclusion that in the 
22 cities investigated there were about 300,000 
working women of an average age of 22, who 
started to work at the average age of 15 with a 
very poor school training. 



132 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

The conditions under which women work are 
less favorable than those of the male workers. 

The wages paid were found to average $5.24 
for 13,822 women who reported; 373 earned less 
than $100 per year; there were some 400 who 
received from $450 to $500 ; but over half received 
as much as $150 but less than $300. About 150,- 
000 women in the 22 cities investigated were com- 
pelled to live on such beggarly incomes, be re- 
spectably dressed and "look pleasant" during 
business hours. 

Some women reported that they averaged from 
their regular occupation an income of about $295 
a year, that their expenses for rooms and meals 
amounted to about $162, for clothes about $80, 
and for other expenses about $38, leaving them a 
surplus of $15 a year. These, however, were 
cases where the women had a home; 14,918 out 
of 17,427 live at home. Of these nearly 10,000 
assist with housework, and over 13,000 either 
give their earnings to their family or pay board. 

Director of Charities Harrison B. Cooley, Ohio, 
has been looking into the condition of Cleveland's 
working women. In the report which he has 
prepared from personal investigation and observa- 
tion he avers that he is grievously suprised at the 
result. He found that the average cost of living 
for a woman of this class was $5.24, while the 
average wage is $4.83. He stated that out of 
thirty-eight women he questioned, twelve were 
earning $3 and six were earning but $2 per week. 
This, he declares, is a fair representation of the 
general condition. The director said, "To those 
who are permitted to see it, the tragedy of our 
modern industrial and social system is appalling. 
The cruel and unjust conditions really cause a 



THE INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION. 1 33 

ruin and degradation of life a hundred fold more 
than the things reformers are more prone to at- 
tack/' (Taxpayer and Workingmen.) 

Returning to official statistics we find the fol- 
lowing instructive data. The census of the de- 
cade 1890-1900 contains the following figures. 

The total increase of the population of the 
United States during that decade was 20.7 per 
cent ; the total increase of the number total value 
of products in the United States during that de- 
cade was 2^.2 per cent ; the total increase of the 
number of laborers in the United States was 25.2 
per cent. 

The total increase of laborers was 8^ per cent 
greater than that of wages. 

The solid fact is painfully emphasized by the 
following figures. The average wages in 1890 
were $444.83 and in 1900 only $439.09. That 
means actually $6.88 or 1.5 per cent less in 1900 
than in 1890. According to Dun's Index the 
prices of 350 articles mostly used by the working 
class averaged during that time an increase of 1.8 
per cent. If we deduct this increase of prices 
from the rate of wages we will get a reduction 
of 3.3 per cent in the real wages, or the purchas- 
ing power of a day's work. The decreased pur- 
chasing powers of a dollar alone during that pe- 
riod would indicate a decline of 2 per cent in 
actual wages. 

Let us now take into consideration the corre- 
sponding data of the previous census for the de- 
cade 1 880- 1 890. 

The increase of the number of laborers from 
1 880- 1 890 amounted to 55.61 per cent, while the 
total wages for that decade increased 99.5 per 
cent. The aggregate wages paid to them in- 



134 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

creased 79 per cent faster than the number of 
total laborers. Dividing the total wages by the 
total number of laborers from 1880- 1890 the aver- 
ages wages increased 28^ per cent. Moreover, 
the purchasing power of a dollar rose 8 per cent, 
making an increase in real wages of more than 
38 per cent. Comparing now the data of the 
two censuses we are forced to the conclusion that 
there was a remarkable fall in the actual wages 
during the last decade, a fall amounting, accord- 
ing to the most conservative calculation, to about 
2 per cent in the decade 1890- 1900 if only the 
purachising power alone would be taken into con- 
sideration and the rate of wages would be as- 
sumed as stationary. In order to be fair we will 
glance at the figures expressing the state of eco- 
nomic growth of production in the country in gen- 
eral. 

The comparison of the two censuses in that re- 
spect shows that the increase in the total product 
was, both actually and relatively, greater from 
1880-1890 than from 1890- 1900, the increase be- 
ing 39 per cent for the last against 74.51 per cent 
for the first. In proportion to the population the 
wealth product in 1880 was $107 per capita, in 
1890 $149, or an increase of $42 per capita; in 
1900 it was $170, showing an increase of $21 
per capita. So it appears that the product per 
capita increased just twice as fast in 1880- 1890 
than in 1890- 1900. 

The comparative wages in gold were as fol- 
lows: 

Date. Daily wages in gold. 

January, i860 $1.18 

January, 1873 . 1.81 

January, 1891 1.69 



THE INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION. I35 

In other words, wages in gold in the urban es- 
tablishments which reported advanced 53^ per 
cent during the thirteen years between i860 and 
1873. During the succeeding eighteen years, de- 
spite the continued advance in the productiveness 
of labor, they lost enough to reduce the net gain 
to 43 per cent. During the war the wages of 
labor advanced rapidly (about one-third if meas- 
ured in gold). After the war was over wages 
rapidly advanced till 1873. From that time until 
1879 the wages fell rapidly. With the resumption 
of specie payment the wages started to increase 
pretty steadily until 1893. From the middle of 
that year wages fell again. According to the 
latest volumes of the Connecticut Labor Report 
and the Massachusetts "Statistics of Manufac- 
ture/ 7 the nominal rate of wages in 1894 had de- 
clined about seven per cent below the level of 
1892, while the yearly level of the incomes of the 
laborers had been still reduced further by lack of 
employment. Manufacturing laborers have had a 
heavy share of the loss inflicted on all producers 
by the fall of prices. (Spahr — Distribution of 
Wealth, p. in.) 

Capital receives two-fifths of the national in- 
come, while the labor of all classes, including 
that of capitalists, receives three-fifths. 

Extra Census Bulletin 67, of the Eleventh 
United States Census, contains an array of fig- 
ures dealing with manufacturing industries in this 
country, the purpose being to show what propor- 
tion of such enterprises goes to the labor em- 
ployed in them. This table will show the conclu- 
sion succinctly : 



I36 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

Product total manufactures in 1890 $9,370,107,624 

Material and miscellaneous cost 5,789,812,411 

Wages cost . .' 2,282,823,265 

Balance to capital 1,297,471,948 

Conditions in New York. — The Bureau of La- 
bor compiles statistics of wages and employees 
from the reports of 3,553 of the largest manufac- 
turing concerns of the State. The table shows 
how the number of employees increased from 
1896 to 1899, fiscal years, and especially from 
1896 to 1898: 

Number of employees. 

1896 299,957 

1897 304,131 1.4 per cent increase 

1898 326,090 7.2 per cent increase 

1899 356.278 9.2 per cent increase 

Total increase in the years 56,321, 18.7 per 
cent. 

The aggregate of wages paid by the same es- 
tablishments : 

1896. $141,184,845 

1897 138,577,678 1.8 per cent decrease 

1898 151,279,000 9.2 per cent increase 

1899 162,645,649 7.5 per cent increase 

Increase wages 1889 over 1896, $21,460,804, 
or 15.2 per cent. 

From this table it will be seen that the number 
of men employed increased more rapidly (18.7 
per cent) than did the total wages (15.2 per 
cent). 

In main the increase in number of men em- 
ployed in 1897 above 1898 was 20 per cent, while 
the increase in total earnings reached only 15 per 
cent. 



THE INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION. 1 37 

Commissioner Martin F. McHale writes in 
February 16, 1900: "The relative cost of living 
is on all sides conceded to be fully 20 per cent 
more than it was one and two years ago.'' The 
commissioners of Colorado, Minnesota and other 
States report decided advance in cost of living. 
The Massachusetts Labor Bulletin shows, on the 
whole, an upward tendency in prices. Here is a 
list which will show comparative prices of a few 
of the principal food commodities in the Boston 
market : 

January 1, 1899. January 1, 1900. 

Increase per cent. 

Sirloin steak 10 

Bacon 10 

Fresh pork 44 

Butter 6 

Coffee, sugar, molasses, salt, beans and most 
vegetables were slightly higher. Generally 
speaking meat was higher in price early in 1900 
than a year previous, whereas bread was un- 
changed in price. Bradstreet's agency compiled 
a most valuable list, showing the commodities 
which changed in prices between January 1, 1899, 
and January 1, 1900. 



INCREASES 


IN PRICE. 


Beef (live) 


Lard 


Sheep (live) 


Butter 


Hogs (live) 


Cheese 


Horses 


Mackerel 


Beef (carcasses) 


Coffee 


Hogs (carcasses) 


Sugar 


Milk 


Molasses 


Beef (family) 


Salt 


Pork 


Southern coke 


Bacon 


Linseed oil 


Hams 


Rosin 



138 



AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 



Beans 

Peas 

Potatoes 

Peanuts 

Lemons 

Raisins 

Hides 

Hemlock leather 

Union leather 

Oak leather 

Cotton 

Wool 

Hemp 

Jute 

Flax 

Print cloth 

Standard sheeting 

Ginghams 

Southern sheeting 

Petroleum 

Castor oil 

Turpentine •* 



Iron ore t 

Eastern pig iron 

Southern pig iron 

Bessemer pig iron 

Steel billets 

Steel rails 

Tin plates 

Steel beams 

Copper 

Lead 

Tin 

Quicksilver 

Anthracite coal 

Bituminous coal 

Connelsville coke 

Rubber 

Paper 

Hay 

Cotton seed 

Olive oil 

Tar 



JANUARY i, 1899, AND JANUARY 1, 1900. 



INCREASES IN PRICE. 



Paper 


Spruce timber 


Nails 


Hemlock timber 


Carbolic acid 


Caustic 


Glass 


Alum 


Yellow pine 


Borax 


Sulphuric acid 


Quinine 


DECREASED 


IN PRICE. 


Wheat 


Rice 


Corn 


Carrots 


Oats 


Silver 


Barley- 


Brick 


Rye 


Alcohol 


Flour 


Opium 


Mutton (carcasses) 


Hops 


Eggs 


Tobacco 


Tea 


Ground bone 



THE INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION. I39 

UNCHANGED PRICES. 

Bread Aluminum 

Codfish Lime 

Apples Bicarbonate of soda 

Cranberries Nitric acid 

(pp. 61, 62.) 

To every unprejudiced mind this list proves 
conclusively that the most important food prod- 
ucts and most needed commodities increased in 
price. The decline in breadstufTs — -wheat and 
corn — was only about six per cent. 

The Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics, in a 
pamphlet entitled Comparative Wages and Prices, 
1 860- 1 892, states that, as a rule, wages were 
higher in 1897 than in 1881, only eight indus- 
tries being reported as exceptions, but the wages 
in 1897 were lower than in 1872. In the prices 
of groceries there was a decrease of 30 per cent 
from 1872 to 1877, an d a decrease of 6.67 per 
cent from 1887. Provisions, as a whole, show a 
decrease of 18.52 per cent in 1897, compared with 
both 1872 and 1881. But even if it could be 
proven that prices of necessities declined, the rise 
in rent was so exorbitatnt as to overweigh this 
decline. Not only does this higher rent reduce 
to its full extent the portion of income available 
for other purposes, but the tenement house sys- 
tem, coincident with it, by precluding the possibil- 
ity of purchasing coal by the ton and wood by the 
load, drives up to extortionate figures the retail 
price of fuel. A part of the benefits which would 
otherwise have accrued to the wage earning class 
from the reduction that took place in the average 
retail prices of food and clothing was therefore 
transferred to the landlord and retail dealer. 



I4O AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

In connection with the investigation of the in- 
come of laborers it will be instructive to cast a 
cursory glance at their budget. According to 
Dr. Engel of Prussia a workingman \yith an in- 
come from $225 to $300 a year spends on means 
of subsistence 62 per cent of his earnings, while 
his expense and clothing reaches only 16 per cent. 
On lodging he spends 12 per cent; fuel and light, 
5 per cent, making a total of 95 per cent; 5 per 
cent being left for religion, legal protection, care 
of health and recreation. 

Very close to these figures are the data about 
the percentage of expenditures of a working- 
man's family with an income of $754.42 in the 
State of Massachusetts. He spends on subsist- 
ence, in round figures, 49 per cent; clothing, 15 
per cent; rent, 19 per cent; fuel, 4 per cent; sun- 
dry expenses, 10 per cent. Dr. Engel's figures 
for a laborer of approximately the same income 
are: Expenses for subsistence, 50 per cent; 
clothing, 18 per cent; rent, 12 per cent; fuel, 5 
per cent; sundry expenses, 15 per cent. (Report 
of the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the State of 
New York, 1892, p. 294.) 

A number of budgets of workingmen's fami- 
lies residing in the State of New York show like- 
wise the preponderance of the percentage of the 
expenses for means of subsistence and rent over 
manufactured articles. It will suffice to quote 
here one typical budget of a carpenter's family 
with an income of $363. The expenses for rent, 
fuel and light make up 33.4 per cent; food, 46.3 
per cent; clothing, 11.6 per cent, and miscella- 
neous, 8.7 per cent of the budget, (p. 301.) 

The standard of living of the wage-earning 
class has not risen in proportion to its productiv- 



THE INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION. I4I 

ity. The productivity, in fact, has increased most 
in the very things that the working class itself 
can neither consume, own or enjoy, (pp. 334, 

3350 

The State of New York contains nearly one- 
tenth of the population and over one-sixth of the 
total wealth of the Union. 

The review of the economic development of 
that State for the ten years from 1880- 1890, ac- 
cording to official data of the Labor Bureau, will 
be therefore of special interest. 

The total capital engaged in manufacturing in- 
dustries of all kinds, after making necessary sub- 
tractions for industries and items omitted in the 
previous census, increased 97.37 per cent from 
1880 to 1890 in the City of Xew York. 

The number of hands employed in manufactur- 
ing industries in the City of New 7 York increased 
48.9 per cent for the same period. 

In the aggregate, the capital invested in manu- 
facturing industries has increased in a higher 
ratio than the number of hands employed. The 
returns for seventy-five leading cities throughout 
the country show an increase of 123.51 per cent in 
capital, against the much lower increase of 65.77 
per cent in the number of persons employed. This 
is one of the facts which confirm and illustrate 
the proposition that the average amount of capital 
required to successfully engage in business is 
steadily growing larger. This fact in its turn 
leads to an increasing concentration of the indus- 
trial activity in the shape of gigantic combines, 
monopolies and trusts as an inevitable result. 
The amount paid for labor in the City of Xew 
York increased 127.89 per cent and the average 
earnings of the workings were S653 in 1890, 



142 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

against $427 in 1880, showing an increase of 
52.93 cent. We have, however, no reliable data 
about the actual purchasing power of wages, 
modified by the change in prices and rents. This 
remark applies likewise to the following data. 
For the seventy-five cities above referred to the 
number of employees increased 65.77 P er cent, 
but the aggregate wages paid increased 135 per 
cent, and the average individual earnings were 
$547 in 1890 against $386 in 1880, an increase 
of 41.71 per cent. 

The number of persons employed in manufac- 
turing increased faster than the population. The 
wage system developed at an unprecedented rate 
in the State of New York during the past decade. 
1 880- 1 890, more so than in the rest of the United 
States. 

In the City of New York from 1880- 1890 the 
increase in the number in the industries was 103 
per cent, while the returns of the seventy-five 
cities throughout the country show also a high 
rate of increase, (pp. 39 and 46.) 

The percentage of increase in the City of New 
York was as follows : 

Number of establishments reported, 103.18 per cent. 

Capital invested, 97-37 per cent. 

Number of hands employed, 48.90 per cent. 

Wages paid, 127.89 per cent. 

Cost of material used, 20.36 per cent. 

Value of products at works, 56.20. 

Population of the city, 25.62 per cent. 

The general public little realizes that the prob- 
lem of the unemployed in the United States is a 
grave one, almost as grave as any other phase of 
the labor problem. The Massachusetts Labor 
Report of 1897, for instance, shows that in 1885, 
when the State census was taken, the average loss 



THE INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION. I43 

from this source was one and one-sixth months 
or five weeks for all the employees of the State. 

Even in years that are most prosperous the 
total loss of time on the part of the w r age earners 
is great. There are, every year, for the workmen 
never off the pay roll, holidays and days when 
the factory stops for repairs, taking of stock, 
etc., and days that work is slack in certain depart- 
ments, and days of sickness, and finally, in certain 
important trades, there are days, and even whole 
seasons, in which work is practically suspended. 
It is a prosperous year indeed when the average 
wage earner aggregates forty-four full weeks' 
employment. (Spahr — Distr. of Wealth, p. 
101.) 

The Massachusetts State Board of Labor indi- 
cates that during 1873-78, the industrial depres- 
sion, that out of .318,000 men in the State en- 
gaged in mechanical pursuits, about 30,000 were 
unemployed. During the depression of 1882- 
1885 it is estimated that about 1,000,000 were 
idle. During the depression following 1893 the 
trades unions' estimate put the number at about 
4,500,000. Returns made to Bradstreet's, the re- 
sult of which were published December 23, 1893, 
show that in 119 cities 801,055 men, having about 
1,956,110 persons dependent upon them, were 
out of employment. Carlos C. Classen, investi- 
gating the problem of unemployed, found in sixty 
cities 523,080 idle men. During the depression in 
1885 there were in Massachusetts 816,470 per- 
sons engaged in gainful occupations ; of those 
241,589 were unemployed during part of the year. 
The time lost, if we consider only the principal 
occupations of each individual, was 82,744 years. 
The net absolute loss of working time amounted 
to 78,717.76 years. 



144 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

The Illinois Labor Report for 1886 published 
returns upon this point from representatives of 
eighty thousand wage earners. The summary 
of these returns is as follows : 

40,281 Trades Unionists average 35.5 weeks — 68 per 
cent full time. 

7,036 Coal miners average 23.4 weeks — 45 per cent 
full time. 

5,567 Railroad men average 46.1 weeks — 88 per cent 
full time. 

32,445 Knights of Labor average 41.5 weeks — 80 per 
cent full time. 



"If," says the commissioner, "it be considered 
necessary to make some allowance for any sup- 
posed disposition to exaggerate the case on the 
part of those who have stated it, or for error in 
judgment on the part of those stating it, the con- 
clusion might be somewhat modified and still 
show the average working time to be 75 per 
cent." 

In the Massachusetts report of 1879 the em- 
ployer returns show that 263,000 persons en- 
gaged in mechanical industries averaged 266.6 
days' work, or approximately 44 weeks. The 
Massachusetts Manufactures Report for 1891 
shows that the factories ran an average of 49^ 
weeks, and the average number employed was 
one-tenth less than the greatest number employed. 
Among unskilled workmen the amount of time 
lost, according to all reports, is much greater, 
(p. 102.) 

Among the causes reducing the earning capaci- 
ties of the laboring class many adverse industrial 
conditions of our time have to be taken into con- 
sideration. 



THE INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION. 145 

W. F. Willoughby in the Bulletin of the De- 
partment of Labor for 1901 (Vol. VI) presents 
the following data on accidents to labor. 

TOTAL RAILWAY EMPLOYEES AND NUMBER KILLED AND IN- 
JURED IN THE UNITED STATES, YEARS ENDING JUNE 
30, 1899 TO 1899. 

Total 

Year. railway employees. Killed. Injured. 

1889 704743 i>972 20,028 

1890 749,301 2,451 22,396 

1891 784,285 2,660 26,140 

1892 821,415 2,554 28,267 

1893 873,602 2,727 31,729 

1894 779,6o8 1,823 23,422 

1895 785,034 1,811 25,696 

1896 826,620 1,861 29,969 

1897 823,476 1,693 27,667 

1898 874,558 1,958 3i,76i 

1899 928,924 2,210 34,923 

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES FOR EACH ONE KILLED OR INJURED 

BY RAILWAY ACCIDENTS IN THE UNITED STATES, 

YEARS ENDING JUNE 30, 1889 TO 1899. 

All employees. 

Years. Killed. Injured. 

1889 357 35 

1890 306 33 

1891 295 30 

1892 322 29 

1893 320 28 

1894 428 33 

1895 • 433 3i 

1896 444 28 

1897 486 30 

1898 447 28 

1899 420 27 

ACCIDENTS. 

The total number of casualties to persons on account 
of railway accidents, as shown for the year ending 
June 30, 1902, was 73,250, the number of persons killed 
having been 8,588 and the number injured 64,662. Of 



I46 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

railway employees, 2,969 were killed and 50,524 were 
injured. 

These figures show a very considerable increase in the 
number of employees injured, a result due in part to 
the unusual increase in traffic and the consequent use of 
all kinds of equipment and the employment of untried 
men, and in part to the fact that since July 1, 1901, the 
carriers have been obliged by law to render monthly 
reports, under oath, to the commission, detailing the 
causes and circumstances surrounding all accidents to 
employees. The summaries giving the ratio of casual- 
ties show that 1 out of every 401 employees was killed, 
and 1 out of every 24 employees was injured. With 
reference to trainmen — including in this term engine- 
men, firemen, conductors, and other trainmen — it is 
shown that one was killed for every 135 employed, and 
1 was injured for every 10 employed. One passenger 
was killed for every 1,883,706 carried, and 1 injured for 
every^ 97,244 carried. Ratios based upon the number 
of miles traveled, however, show that 57,072,283 pas- 
senger miles were accomplished for each passenger 
killed, and 2,946,272 passenger miles accomplished for 
each passenger injured. 

Mr. Hoffman has prepared a large number of 
tables for accidents to miners in different States, 
but the general results are summarized in the En- 
gineering and Mining Journal for November 24, 
1900: 

FATAL ACCIDENTS IN THE COAL MINES IN THE UNITED 
STATES AND CANADA 189O-1899. 

1890 701 1895 T > 020 

1891 1,076 1896 1,091 

1892 859 1897 909 

1893 919 1898 1,004 

1894 934 1899 1,200 

FATAL ACCIDENTS IN COAL MINES IN THE UNITED STATES 
AND CANADA PER EACH 1,000 EMPLOYEES, 189O TO 1899. 

1890 2.43 1895 '• ,...2.63 

1891 3.30 1896 2.78 

1892 2.51 1897 2.8l 

1893 2.46 1898 . 2.54 

1894 2 47 1899 2.99 



THE INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION. I47 

No country offers more illustrations of injury 
to railroad employees than the United States, in- 
jury caused by overwork on the part of the labor- 
ers and criminal neglect on the part of the soul- 
less railroad corporations. 

There were killed on the railroads in the United 
States during the. year ending June 30, 1892, 
2,551 employees, and 28,268 were injured. That 
is, one employee for every 322 men at work in 
this industry was killed, and one injured for 
every 29 men in the employ of the railways. In 
the case of the trainmen, the statistics for the 
same year show that there was one man killed for 
every 113 of this class of employees, and one was 
injured for every 10. (Report of the Statistics of 
the Interstate Commerce Commissioners in 1892, 
pp. 68, 78.) 

According to the Report of the United States 
Geological Survey the number of miners killed 
during the year 1901 alone amounted to 1,467, 
while the number of wounded reached 3,643. 
Each 1,881,668 tons of coal mined in the United 
States are paid by the price of the life of one 
killed miner. In the anthracite mines of Penn- 
sylvania alone 513 miners were killed and 1,243 
wounded, 2"jj women turned widows and 624 
children orphans. Each 131,524 tons of -coal 
mined in Pennsylvania is paid by the priec of the 
life of one miner. In the bituminous mines of 
Pennsylvania 301 miners were killed and 656 
wounded, 184 women turned widows and 412 
children orphans. The mining belt teems with 
cripples, invalids and orphans. 

Industrial conditions peculiar to our capital- 
istic system of production lead not only to acci- 
dents resulting in the death or invalidity of the 



I48 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

wage workers, but to the gradual chronic degen- 
eration of the working class because of the dis- 
ease-begetting conditions that surround the work. 

The annual report of the Labor Commis- 
sioner of New Jersey for the year 1889 (p. 35), 
for instance, states as follows: 

"The writer has witnessed the decline of the 
generations of pot-makers within the past forty 
years. " Page 36 shows data according to which 
of 240 sizers of pots or makers of hats 76 had 
catarrh, 44 rheumatism, 41 coughs, 17 have had 
"shakes," 13 had at that time the "shakes," 12 
constantly catching cold because of sudden 
change of temperature, 7 complained of dyspep- 
sia, 200 of stimulants and tobacco. The writer 
ascribes all this to poor sanitation. 

Unhealthy industrial conditions lead to a higher 
death rate among laboring classes than among 
the well-to-do. 

The Massachusetts statistics show that the 
average death age of a farmer is 65.19 years, 
which is the highest average in any occupation. 
The average age of death among male factory 
operatives is 38.92, and of female operatives only 
27.98, which is the lowest average on the list. 
Next to female operatives in lowness of average 
wage earners with 33.84, plumbers with 35.43, 
and glass blowers with 37.81 years. 

According to Joseph Korosy, the eminent statis- 
tician of Buda Pesth, if we start at the age of 25 
with 1,000 persons of each class there will be 
living at the end of 35 years of the merchants, 
587; of the tailors, 421 ; of the shoemakers, 376; 
of the servants, 290 ; of day laborers, 253. Dur- 
ing this time the total number of years of life 
lived by the merchants was 28,001 and by day 



THE INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION. I49 

laborers only 22,317. But worse than this, of the 
years of life falling to the lot of the day laborers, 
1,493 will be years of sickness, while of years of 
life lived by merchants only 824 will be years of 
sickness. In other words the merchant will have 
33^ years in which to provide for one of sick- 
ness, while the day laborer will have only 13.9 
years of health in which to provide for sickness. 
(Mittheilungen ueber Industrielle Mortalitat, 
1876, p. 28.) 

According to Ansell, out of 100,000 children 
born alive, there will be living: 

At end of Age of Age of 

first year. fifteen. sixty. 

Peerage family 93.038 85.890 51.166 

Upper class 91-955 83.392 53-398 

Clergy children 91.667 79-536 

English life tables 85.051 68.465 36.983 

Mr. John McMackin, Commissioner of Labor 
of the State of New York, gives the following 
data in his report for the year 1900 (p. 62, etc.). 
English statistics show that between the ages of 
25 and 65 the death rate among workers of 
earthen ware is fully three times as large as that 
among clergymen. Such an enormous disparity 
shows that thousands of workingmen die long 
before they have produced all the wealth they 
were capable of producing, if their health had 
been preserved by proper care. Many other 
trades are equally injurious to health, as will be 
seen in the following table of comparative mor- 
tality of certain occupations in England in the 
years 1890, 1891 and 1892: 



150 



AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 



OCCUPATIONS WITH HIGHEST AND LOWEST MOR- 
TALITY FIGURES IN ENGLAND, 1890-2. 
(Supplement to 55th Annual Report of the Registrar-General.) 



Comparative 
Occupation. mortality figure. 

Dock laborer 1,829 

File maker 1,810 

Lead worker 1*783 

Inn, hotel servant 1,725 

Potter, earthenware manu- 
facturer 1,706 

Innkeeper, servant, etc. ..1,650 
Coster monger, hawker ..1,652 

Innkeeper 1,642 

Coal heaver 1,528 

Cutler,scissors maker. 1,516 
General laborer (in- 
dustrial districts) . . 1 , 509 

Glass manufacturer 1,487 

Brewer 1,427 

General laborer (Lon- 
don) 1,413 

Tool, scissors, file, saw, 

etc., maker 1,412 

Tin miner 1,409 

Manufacturing chemist. . . 1,392 

Copper worker 1,381 

Wool, silk, etc., dyer. . . . 1,370 

Seaman, etc 1,352 

Slater, tiler 1,322 

Chimney sweep 1,311 

Lead miner 1,310 

Nail, anchor, chain, etc., 

maker 1,301 

Carman, carrier 1,284 

Copper miner 1,230 

Gunsmith 1,228 

Messenger, porter (not 
railway or government). 1,222 

General laborer 1,221 

Transport service ...1,216 
Musician, music master. . 1,214 

Bargeman 1,199 

Zinc worker ; 1,198 

Stone, slate quarrier. .... 1,176 

Coach, cab service i»i53 

Coal miner (Mon- 
mouths hire and 

South Wales) 1,145 

Cotton, etc., manufac- 
turer 1,141 



Comparative 
Occupation. mortality figure. 
omi . Lowest, 
bilk, satin, etc., manufac- 
turer Q21 

Baker, confectioner 920 

Shoemaker, bootmaker ....920 

Commercial clerk 915 

Blacksmith, whitesmith 914 

Coal miner (West 

Riding) , gi2 

Paper manufacturer 904 

Tallow, soap manu- 
facturer 897 

Maltster 884 

Carpet, rug manufacturer. .873 

Shopkeeper 859 

Other occupied males 847 

Fisherman 84 q 

Miller 845 

Publisher 833 

Railway guard, etc 825 

Barrister, solicitor 821 

Railway engine driv- 
er, guard, etc 818 

Railway engine driver ....810 

Ironmonger 807 

Coal merchant 803 

Engine driver (not rail- 
way, etc.) 786 

Carpenter, joiner 783 

Railway official clerk 781 

Artist, engraver, etc 778 

Wheelwright 778 

Coal miner (Durham 
and Northumber- 
land) 774 

Ironstone miner 774 

Sawyer^ .^ 768 

Domestic indoor servant. . .757 

Tanner, fellmonger 756 

Brick tile burner 741 

Coal miner (Derby- 
shire and Notting- 
hamshire) ^27 

Shipwright 713 

Lace manufacturer 709 

Hosiery manufacturer .... 698 
Laborer in agricul- 
tural group 666 

Grocer 664 

Agricultural Laborer 6321 

Schoolmaster 604 

Agriculturalist ....... 602 

Farmer, grazier 563 

Gardener, etc. * 553 

Clergyman 533 



THE INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION. 151 

Occupations in the first column have a mor- 
tality above and those in the second column be- 
low the average for all occupied males (953). 
Among the 48 other occupational groups 39 are 
above and 9 below this figure. The standard of 
comparison (1,000) is the mortality figure for all 
males. 

Indented lines indicate sub-classes or occupa- 
tions. 

The number of deaths of male persons between 
25 and 65 years of age in the years 1891 and 1892 
is compared with the number of living persons 
exercising the various occupations, as returned 
by the census of 1891. The mortality of all males 
within the age period, 25-65 years, is then taken 
as a standard with which the death rate in the 
various occupations is compared. The unoccu- 
pied male had a death rate more than twice as 
large as that of all males, the exact ratio being as 
2,215 to i>ooo, while the occupied males of course 
had a lower mortality, thus: 

All males (standard) 1,000 

Unoccupied males 2,215 

Occupied males (England) 953 

Occupied males (London) i,H7 

Occupied males (industrial districts) 1,248 

Occupied males (agricultural district) 681 

The mortality among male workers in the in- 
dustrial districts is all but twice as heavy as it is 
in the agricultural districts, thus showing the ex- 
pensiveness to the community of noxious pur- 
suits. Regarding men simply as working ani- 
mals the community cannot afford to permit such 
a disproportionate mortality. If all these work- 
ers were slaves we may be sure that their owners 



152 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

would take care to preserve their lives beyond 
the present average. 

If we recur to the preceding table of occupa- 
tional mortality the disparities are even more 
striking. At the bottom of the lis^are clergymen 
(533) an d at the top dock laborers (1,829). 
School teachers stand low in the list (604). 
Medical men, who are in constant contact with 
disease and who work most irregularly, have, 
nevertheless, a lower mortality (966) than the 
majority of factory operatives. 

These official figures from the fifty-fifth annual 
report of the Registrar General of England sim- 
ply confirm the conclusions of physicians familiar 
with the lives of factory operatives. A French 
physician who has made an exhaustive study of 
this subject (Dr. II j a (Elias) Sachine, Le Journe 
du Huit Heures au Point de Vue de l'Hygiene et 
de la Medicine, Lyon, 1900), concludes that the 
abnormal sickness and mortality among working 
people is due, not simply to poisonous and nox- 
ious substances in the materials of work, but also 
to fatigue which afifects the nerves. A few of 
the conclusions of Dr. Sachine will be of interest 
to us. 

"Mortality and sickness are unusually pro- 
nounced among working classes. Their average 
death rate, compared with other classes, is espe- 
cially high beyond the age of 35 or 40, i. e., the 
age at which fatigue attains the ascendancy over 
the endurance and power of resistance of the indi- 
vidual, however great his physical strength may 
have been at first. The bodily development of the 
factory operative remains inferior to that found 
in other social classes. Excessive work and long 
hours are the causes that have powerfully pro- 



THE INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION. 1 53 

moted the use of stimulants and intoxicating 
liquors. 

The harmful influence of the long working 
hours are not only directly upon those who work, 
but also upon future generations and threatens 
the vigor and full development of the human 
race! 3 

We see that the laborer is exploited by the capi- 
talistic system of production — as a producer — by 
offering the lowest remuneration for the most in- 
tense work and as a consumer by screwing up 
prices to the highest possible point for commodi- 
ties he has to use in order to exist and propagate 
his kind. The result of this most unmerciful ex- 
ploitation of the producers by the parasitic classes 
of society appear in the distribution of income and 
property in the United States. 

Professor Chas. B. Spahr, of Columbia Uni- 
versity, wrote an essay on the present distribu- 
tion of wealth in the United States and published 
it in 1896. 

From this essay we will here make a few ex- 
tracts. 

"Distribution of property by classes. 

The Massachusetts Labor Bureau in its report 
for 1873 presented the following data : The num- 
ber of people paying taxes upon property was 
nearly four-fifths of the whole number of family 
residents. Among those paying such taxes, how- 
ever, four-fifths held less than one-fifth of the 
property, while one-fiftieth held nearly as much 
property as all the remainder/ The data pub- 
lished twenty years later by the assessing depart- 
ment of the city of Boston showed that the whole 
number of property taxpayers was less than one- 
fifth the number of families residing in Boston. 



154 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

For the same year the list of property owners 
taxed more than $1,000 showed them to possess 
more than half the taxable property." (p. 52.) 

Mr. George K. Holmes' (quoted by Chas. B. 
Spahr) data shows that one-tenth of the families 
held about three times as much property as the 
other nine-tenths, (p. 55.) 

The returns received from New York City in 
1892 were as follows: Only about one-fourth of 
the men who died during the three months end- 
ing December, 1892, left any property whatever 
except their clothing and household furniture. 
If the death rate was normal during the period 
covered the returns indicated about one hundred 
and ten thousand property-owning families. The 
whole number of families in the city was three 
hundred and thirty thousand. In other words, 
two-thirds of the families are in a strict sense of 
the word propertyless. 

The savings bank argument, so frequently em- 
ployed by conservative statesmen and economists, 
is utterly fallacious as can be seen from the fol- 
lowing facts : In New York City the number of 
savings bank accounts is nearly twice as great as 
the number of families. Yet two-thirds of the 
families not only possess no savings bank ac- 
count, but no registered property of any descrip- 
tion. The bulk of the deposit belongs to a 
comparatively small class of well-to-do citizens. 

Respecting the distribution of wealth among 
the propertied classes, the returns for New York 
City showed that the small estates outnumber 
the medium and large ones, the ratio being nearly 
three to one in favor of estates less than $5,000. 
In value, all of these smaller estates combined 
represented but four per cent of the property, 



THE INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION. 1 55 

while the comparatively few estates exceeding 
$50,000 w T as three times as valuable as all the 
remainder. 

According to the data furnished by the Surro- 
gate Court during the years from October, 1892- 
September, 1896, the properties over $30,000 
aggregated five times as much as those smaller 
than that sum. The number of the possessors of 
the large estates was but six per cent of the prop- 
erty owners, and represented but two per cent of 
the heads of families dying during these two 
years, (pp. 50-60.) 

The real estate within New York City is more 
valuable than all the real estate in New England, 
exclusive of the City of Boston, and more val- 
uable than all the real estate in the eight com- 
monwealth's between the Potomac and Texas. 
An abnormal concentration of both wealth and 
poverty is known to exist everywhere within its 
borders, (p. 61.) The distribution of wealth 
in Brooklyn is more typical of tne large cities 
throughout the country. The estates worth over 
$50,000 contained over twice as much property 
as all the remainder; while the aggregate hold- 
ings of middle and poorer classes — those owning 
less than $50,000 — was but seven per cent of the 
total. 

Approximately one-eighth of the families of 
the nation — city, town and country — hold more 
than $5,000. 

The census investigation show r ed that in New 
York City but 61-3 per cent of the families 
owned their homes, (pp. 66-68.) 

The conclusion reached, therefore, is as fol- 
lows : 

Less than half the families are propertyless. 



I56 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

Seven-eighths of the families hold but one- 
eighth of the national wealth, while one per cent 
of the families hold more than the remaining 
ninety-nine. (p. 69.) 

The nation's income. 

The profit of manufacturers, according to the 
Massachusetts Report of the Bureau of Labor 
Statistics for 1890, including interest, rent, taxes, 
and earnings for superintendence, was approxi- 
mately two-thirds of the wages of the employes. 

The wealthiest ten per cent of American fami- 
lies received approximately the same income as 
the remaining ninety per cent. 

The average family income from labor should 
not be put higher than $500 in the towns and 
$300 in the rural districts. As three-fifths live 
in the rural districts the average would be $380 
for all. 

More than five-sixths of the income of the 
wealthiest class is received by 125,000 richest 
families, while less than one-half of the income 
of the working classes is received by the poorest, 
6,500,000. In other words, one per cent of our 
families receive nearly one-fourth of the national 
income, while fifty per cent receive barely one- 
fifth. One-eighth of the families in America re- 
ceive more than half of the aggregate income, 
and the richest one per cent receives a larger in- 
come than the poorest fifty per cent. In fact, 
the small class of wealthy property owners re- 
ceive from property alone as large an income as 
half of our people receive from property and 
labor. 

In connection with these facts, it is very in- 
structive to see which of the classes — the rich or 
the poor — bear the burden of taxation. 



THE INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION. 157 

Our authority maintains that nearly three- 
quarters of our national revenue is raised from 
taxes resting upon liquor, tobacco, sugar, and 
clothing. (Our national revenues have for sev- 
eral years aggregated a little less than four hun- 
dred millions. All but twenty millions of this 
sum is raised by custom and internal revenue 
duties. ) 

Mr. Spahr calculates: "When we consider 
only the revenues actually received by the govern- 
ment, the conclusion inevitably reached is that 
the wealthy class pays less than one-tenth of the 
indirect taxes, the well-to-do class, one-quarter; 
and the relatively poorer classes, two-thirds." 

(pp. 141-145O 

The resume of Mr. Spahr is so characteristic 
that we cannot abstain from quoting some of its 
parts. 

"In our own country the Civil War overthrew 
the once domniant cause of the separation of 
classes, but called into activity new forces work- 
ing to the same end. The dominant (social-eco- 
nomic) forces to-day are all working toward the 
concentration of wealth in the cities, and the im- 
poverishment of country districts. In the cities 
these forces are working towards a yet narrower 
concentration. The wealth of the cities is as 
much more concentrated as it is greater than the 
wealth of rural districts. Taking city and coun- 
try together, we found that the great body of 
small property owners hold barely one-eighth of 
the national wealth, and that one family of 
every one hundred owns as much as all the re- 
mainder. 

"Turning to the incomes of families, we found 
that in this country, as well as in Europe, two- 



I58 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

fifths of the products of industry go as the share 
of capital, quite apart from the earnings of cap- 
italist classes from personal exertions. One-tenth 
of the families have the same aggregate income 
as the remaining nine-tenths, while the one per 
cent at the top has as much as the fifty per cent 
at the bottom. Turning finally to the field of tax- 
ation, we found that the public is taxing as large 
a percentage from the incomes insufficient for the 
healthful and decent living as from incomes 
morally perilous to their possessors, and is plac- 
ing upon the property of those struggling for in- 
dependence, burdens fourfold heavier than upon 
the property of those already rich." (pp. 158, 

IS9-) 

The humiliating conclusion that the wage- 
worker of the United States, the man who sup- 
plies the "land of the free" with food, shelter, 
clothing and other necessaries of life, is over- 
worked and underpaid by his employers and over- 
taxed by the State, whose nominal citizen he is, 
and also the conclusion that the toiling masses of 
the United States have to be classed in the cate- 
gory of the "respectable poor" force themselves 
upon us with the irresistable logic of a mathe- 
matical certainty. Indeed, we have seen that the 
yearly income of an average wage-worker's 
family is barely sufficient to keep it on the brink 
of semi-starvation even when there is work all 
the year round. Even of this small income he is 
by no means certain. Slight disturbances in busi- 
ness, illness, the whim or fancy of the "bread 
giving" employer, any accident may in the 
twinkling of an eye destroy the unstable equil- 
ibrium of the proletarian's economic status and 
turn him into a pauper. That there is only one 



THE INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION. 159 

fatal step from the respectable poverty of a 
"wage-worker" to the demoralizing pauperism of 
the "outdoor relief" and the "indoor relief" va- 
riety may be illustrated by the following "story 
of John and Mary Baker" as related by Ernest 
P. Bicknell, of the Chicago Bureau of Charities, 
in the Report of the XXXIII National Confer- 
ence of Charities : 

"John and Mary Baker lived in a little country 
town in Southern Wisconsin. When the World's 
Fair was being laid out and the great buildings 
were going up, a young man, who was a friend 
of John Baker, went down to Chicago and got a 
job of work on the Fair grounds. John Baker 
was a good carpenter, and his friend wrote that 
everybody could get work at good pay, and that 
he had better come down. So John went, and 
took Mary and the. two babies. He got work and 
steady pay. When the Fair was finished, there 
followed a terrible industrial depression. John 
Baker lost his job and could not get another. 
He went up and down and looked at the half 
finished buildings ; but the whole town was over- 
built, and there was nothing for him to do. His 
savings gradually wasted away, and after awhile 
he had to give up his flat, for which he was pay- 
ing $15, in a good neighborhood, and move into 
another place where he could rent rooms for $10 
in a neighborhood not so good. He went on strug- 
gling and doing what he could in the way of odd 
jobs, and Mary took in a couple of boarders for 
awhile. They managed to get along for a year 
or two that way. 

Times continued hard. John could not make 
both ends meet, and his savings were all gone. 
They moved to a place where the rent was six 



l6o AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

or seven dollars a month — in a dreadful locality. 
They had to move, as they were to be put out 
of their rooms for non-payment of rent. The 
third flat into which they moved had no drainage. 
The rooms were dark, the surroundings vile, and 
the neighborhood terrible. There was no grass 
plot or trees, nothing but a grim and sordid life 
on a very low plane. Their life began to grow 
bad in this wretched place, and who is there to 
say a word of condemnation? 

"Mary became cross and irritable and nervous. 
John's discouragement grew on him, and he got 
shabby and run down at the heel, and began to 
drink. After awhile it came about that, when he 
went into a business house to apply for a job, he 
went in with a hang-dog, sullen air which showed 
that he did not expect to get a job, and the em- 
ployer was satisfied at a glance that he did not 
want any man like that around. 

"When this state of affairs had been reached 
the eldest girl, Annie, who was not twelve years 
old, was taken out of school and put to work in a 
box factory. She began to run about at night, 
and the mother was too feeble to look after her. 
The boy, Harry, ran the streets, and fell into 
bad company, of course. He broke into a vacant 
house with some boys one day and stole lead 
pipe, and was arrested and sent to the House of 
Correction. Mary came down with typhoid fever 
just about the time that the landlord served a 
notice of eviction. Then a neighbor came to the 
Associated Charities and said, 'Here is a sad 
case. The woman is good, but the family is a 
bad lot. The man is worthless, the boy a crim- 
inal/ Now, that is what the Bureau of Charities 
found when its attention was first called to the 



THE INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION. l6l 

case of John and Mary Baker. Here was a con- 
dition of affairs that not a single charity asso- 
ciation on the face of the earth could have cured. 
No charitable organization ever created, or that 
ever will be created, could have taken up that 
situation and quickly and permanently cured it. 
A long struggle was inevitable, if this family was 
to be brought back up the long steep incline down 
which it had gone. Our ambition to see results, 
or our failure to read the facts in their true 
significance, lead us to imagine that we can cure 
a case like that in a week. It leads some of us 
to think that by giving an order of groceries we 
can cure such a case, or that by sending the doc- 
tor around and giving Mary a dose of medicine 
we have done all that is required. What we need 
to remember is, that this has been a good family, 
and that it had moved down this incline for five 
years. It is folly to imagine that anything but 
long years of care in helping and guiding and lift- 
ing would bring it again up to the place of self 
respect that it had once occupied. The Associ- 
ated Charities could not have done anything by 
itself, the doctor could not do much; no single 
society, no agency of any sort, was adequate to 
cope with that situation." 

The Associated Charities of any great city 
knows not merely one family, but thousands, like 
that of John and Mary Baker. 

The following data show the returns of 27,961 
cases of applicants for relief, which were investi- 
gated by the charitable organizations in 1887: 

Worthy of continuous relief, 2,888, or 10.3 per cent. 
Worthy of temporary relief, 7,451, or 26.6 per cent. 
Need work rather than relief, 11,280, or 40.4 per cent. 
Unworthy of relief (?), 6,342, or 22.7 per cent. 



l62 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

Mr. Kellog, who submitted the report contain- 
ing the data to the Conference of Charities, says 
that among all the societies of the country there 
is a notable unity of opinion that only from 31 
to 37 per cent, or say one-third, of the cases 
actually treated were in need of that material 
assistance for which no office or friendly counsel 
or restraint could compensate. The logical ap- 
plication of this statement to the whole country is, 
that two-thirds of its real or simulated destitu- 
tions could be wiped out by a more perfect adjust- 
ment of labor. 

The summary of returns from Baltimore, Bos- 
ton and New Yorw charities for the years i8pi, 
1892, 1893 show that over 55 per cent of the cases 
should have work rather than relief; 9.1 per cent 
should have no relief ( ?) ; 58 per cent should be 
disciplined ( !) ; 7.4 per cent should have visita- 
tions and advice only ; and that only about 42.64 
per cent needed direct relief of any kind. The 
causes of poverty in Buffalo are classified as 
shown on the following page. 

A glance at that table will convince us that 
industrial conditions leading to lack of employ- 
ment, insufficient earnings, etc., are responsible 
for the largest percentage among the causes of 
pauperism. 

Drink is considered among the most important 
individual causes of poverty. The fact is, how- 
ever, that drink is rather an effect of demoraliza- 
tion caused by extreme poverty, than a cause of 
the last. Intense exhausting labor, irregular em- 
ployment, bad air, inadequate and ill-prepared 
food, cause a craving for stimulants. 

Prof. Amos G. Warner says: "The ravages 
of intemperance are most plainly to be traced in 



THE INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION. 



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164 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

classes above the pauper class," In passing 
through wards of almshouses Prof. A. G. Warner 
has been frequently surprised at the number of 
inmates who were said to be temperate and of 
whom the statement was apparently true. W. 
Benson Lewis, who writes in the Fortnightly Re- 
view, September, 1893, "On the Conditions of 
Crime," finds that, territorially, crime rather than 
pauperism seems to accompany drunkenness. 

The same argument applies to so-called shift- 
lessness and other alleged individual causes of 
poverty. The vices of the poor are not the 
causes, but the results of the demoralization and 
physical deterioration brought about by indigence. 
A half-starved, ill-clad, badly housed, and igno- 
rant proletarian cannot be expected to be pru- 
dent and far-seeing, selfreliant and provident. 
The physical and mental deterioration due to the 
anti-hygenic conditions of life and work lead to 
sickness and poverty. To the sickness and death 
of the natural family bread-winner, the superin- 
tendent of Chicago Charities attributes the desti- 
tution of a large majority of the dependents in 
Chicago. He said, "The state of the average 
family found in destitution, in a state of dis- 
couragement and resignation to their lot of pov- 
erty, can almost invariably be traced back to one 
cause — sickness and death and doctor's bills after- 
wards, followed by utter destitution, or the 
widow is left with a large family and the result is 
inevitable. Where the natural bread-winner is 
either dead or invalidated, the result is depend- 
ence." 

That physical and mental weakness caused by 
poverty in its turn causes poverty and leads to 
the perpetuation of pauperism, is illustrated by 



THE INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION. 165 

startling data about hereditary pauperism. Of 
12,614 inmates in the almshouses of New York 
in the early seventies 397, or nearly 3.15 per cent, 
were the offspring of pauper fathers; 1,361, or 
10.74 per cent, of pauper mothers. The de- 
pendence dated back to the third generation in 
55 cases on the paternal and 92 cases on the 
maternal side, 1,122 had pauper brothers, 951 
pauper sisters, 143 pauper uncles and 133 pauper 
aunts. About 22 per cent of the children of 
poorhouse parents were found to be of the de- 
pendent or delinquent classes. The percentage 
of those who were a charge upon the public 
raised a little more than 25 per cent. The influ- 
ence of the environment of the poor born in the 
poorhouses and the slums on the tendency to 
the perpetuation of pauperism seems to be obvi- 
ous. The children of the poor are foredoomed by 
the very conditions of their childlife to pauper- 
ism. (Mr. Booth puts pauper associations and 
hereditary together as contributory causes 16.7 
per cent for England.) 

We have proven that the main, if not only, 
cause of poverty in our time is social-economic 
parasitism with which our present society is 
honeycombed. We may repeat, with perfect con- 
sciousness of stating actual conditions, the lines 
addressed by Shelley to the "Men of England," 
but applicable to all the children of toil in the 
United States and elsewhere : 

Children of toil, wherefore plough 
For the lords who lay ye low? 
Wherefore weave with toil and care 
The rich robes your tyrants wear? 

Wherefore feed, and clothe, and save, 
From the cradle to the grave 



l66 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

Those ungrateful drones who would 
Drain your sweat — nay, drink your blood? 

Wherefore, bees of America, forge 
Many a weapon, chain, and scourge; 
That those stingless drones may spoil 
The forced product of your toil? 

Have ye leisure, comfort, calm, 
Shelter, food, love's gentle balm? 
Or what is it ye buy so dear 
With your pain and your fear? 

The seed you sow, another reaps; 
The wealth ye find, another keeps; 
The robes ye weave, another wears; 
The arms ye forge, another bears. 

Sow seed, but let no tyrant reap; 
Find wealth — let no imposter heap; 
Weave robes — let not the idle wear; 
Forge arms in your defense to bear. 



THE ABOLITION OF POVERTY. 

"It is a repulsive subject !" 

"It is a baneful misconception of modern civ- 
ilization !" 

"It is a socialistic atrocity!" 

Such were the opinions of the middle class 
Philistines, the Bourgeois, about the picture of 
Jean Weber at the last exhibition of the "Salon" 
in Paris. 

This picture is a large work, superb in colors 
and superbly drawn. It exercises an irresistible 
fascination on the spectator, it enchants the ob- 
server. Everybody at the "Salon" gazed at it; 
everybody talked about it. It aroused anger and 
indignation among the respectable parasitic class- 
es of the French metropolis. It was greeted with 
intense enthusiasm by the friends of the masses 
who toil and lead a life of poverty. 

If the writer of these lines possessed the genius 
of Edwin Markham, he would produce a poem 
about Weber's picture, even more stirring than 
"The Man with the Hoe." 

A huge dynamo is in rapid motion. On a steel 
cylinder is perched a nude female figure, whose 
red hair stands on end by the force of electricity 
or terror. A ponderous fly-wheel is crushing to 
a hideous pulp tender and innocent children, 
delicate and beautiful women, vigorous men, 
representing the flower of the human race, old 
men and women. A river of human blood flows 
beneath. 

167 



l68 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

Let us supplement this picture by another one. 

Let us imagine that this river of human blood 
is being collected in a huge basin called "The 
World's Market/' where the magicians of the 
Board of Trade, the wizards of gigantic trusts 
and monopolies, the conjurers of modern ma- 
chine production, the kings of the finance turn 
this human blood into glittering gold and coin it 
into money to fill their private treasuries, their 
safes and vaults. 

These two pictures, Weber's and ours, repre- 
sent our modern parasitic civilization called 
Capitalism, as it is in reality, as Cannibalism. 

The huge dynamo of Weber's picture repre- 
sents the social-economic mechanism of modern 
machine production. The ponderous flywheel 
symbolizes the social-economic powers concen- 
trated in the hands of the non-producers, called 
Capitalists. 

And the men, women and children crushed into 
pulp are the toiling masses. 

The most remarkable feature about the mur- 
derous flywheel of Capitalism is that it is en- 
tirely the product of the labor of its crushed 
victims, the proletarians. 

The knowledge of the laws of Nature, the in- 
ventive genius and the mechanical skill that were 
necessary for the production of the flywheel of 
modern industry, are the common heritage of the 
human race. 

The huge dynamo moving the flywheel of 
modern industry concentrates blind natural 
forces, that instead of being utilized for the 
benefit of the entire human race are exploited in 
the interests of a parasitic minority. 

The injustice, the cruelty and absurdity of a 



THE ABOLITION OF POVERTY. 169 

state of society, where the actual creators of 
commodities are turned into victims and abject 
slaves of those who do not create anything use- 
ful ; where the toiling masses are being crushed 
by the means of the very same products of their 
toil, are so striking that they need little elucida- 
tion. 

The questions that suggest themselves to our 
mind are: 

How did such an obviously unjust, cruel and 
absurd state of society develop? How and why 
is such a state of society maintained and tolerated 
by reasoning and feeling human beings? 

Capitalism, like all institutions of human soci- 
ety, is of a transitory character. It developed, 
grew, and is bound to be succeeded by another 
state of society as soon as it has outlived its 
utility. 

Cannibalism was succeeded by slavery, slav- 
ery by serfdom, serfdom by free individual pro- 
duction, individual production by semi-socialized 
manufacture, and the last by fully socialized ma- 
chine production. 

There was a time when slavery was a progres- 
sive institution in comparison with cannibalism. 
Serfdom was the legitimate heir of slavery. In- 
dividual production was succeeded by the more 
economic manufacturing stage. 

The modern machine production, as an eco- 
nomic stage, is immensely superior to all prev- 
ious stages of production. The private owner- 
ship of the means of production by non-pro- 
ducers, however, turns machine production into 
the most perfect system of exploitation. The 
ownership of the means of production enables 
the non-producers to appropriate the lion's share 



170 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

of the products of the toil of the working classes 
in the shape of rent, profit, and interest. 

In order to get means of subsistence for him- 
self and his family, the modern proletarian has 
to dispose in the world's market of the only 
property left to him — his labor power. He is 
compelled, under the penalty of death from star- 
vation, to sell his labor power at the market price 
to the owner of the means of production — to the 
capitalist. The divorce between the producer and 
the means of production turned human labor 
power into a mere marketable commodity, sub- 
jected to all the vicissitudes of supply and de- 
mand. 

As we cannot separate a living human being 
from his labor power, the laborer himself is 
actually turned into a mere marketable commod- 
ity, into a wage slave. It is true the modern 
wage slave, not like the serf or chattel slave, 
may choose, if he can, his master, but a master 
he must have, or starve. With the increasing 
concentration and consolidation of capital in gi-. 
gantic combines, trusts, and monopolies, even 
this doubtful privilege of choosing the master is 
becoming illusory. The employer of labor, the 
capitalist, is not in business for his health. He 
buys labor power at the lowest possible price 
and sells the products of this labor power at the 
highest price possible. It is in the interest of the 
capitalist to apply labor power to production with 
the highest intensity possible. 

The wage-worker must produce a higher value 
than that embodied in the wage he receives. He 
must produce surplus value for the benefit of his 
employer — the capitalist. The latter pockets the 
surplus value. Part of it he consumes and part 



THE ABOLITION OF POVERTY. IJI 

of it he reinvests in his business in order to buy 
more labor power and make more profit. 

Capitalistic property is consequently based not 
on the labor of its actual owner, but on the labor 
of those who do not own any property except 
their labor power, on the labor of exploited prole- 
tarians. 

Capitalism disintegrates the family of the 
proletrian, drives his daughter on the thorny 
path of sexual slavery, sends his child into the 
sweatshop and mill, breeds crime, and creates 
poverty and pauperism. 

In order to comprehend the reason why and 
how the capitalistic state of society is maintained 
and tolerated by a race of feeling and reason- 
ing beings, we have to examine the methods used 
by the ruling parasitic classes who keep the toil- 
ing masses in due obeisance and subjection. 

The cardinal difference between man and ani- 
mal, as far as the struggle for existence is con- 
cerned, consists in their respective mode of adap- 
tation to the environment. Animals limit them- 
selves, as a rule, to a passive adaptation to the 
environment. Men adapt to a great extent the 
environment to themselves — in fact, create an ar- 
tificial environment to suit their purposes. Cul- 
ture and civilization are mainly the results of this 
ability of men to be, to a considerable extent, the 
masters of their own destinies. A stage of cul- 
ture favorable to the ever-increasing perfection 
of the artificial material environment is called 
progressive and vice versa. 

The term artificial is, of course, not meant here 
as an entire opposite to the term "natural," but 
rather in the sense of conscious, purposely modi- 
fied. 

Men, for instance, invented cloth, houses, 



172 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

stoves, etc., in order to protect themselves from 
the inclemencies of the weather. Cloth, houses, 
stoves, etc., are artificial, purposely modified, 
natural products ; they are the creation of human 
ingenuity and form a part of the material en- 
vironment that makes up our culture and civiliza- 
tion. 

What are the psychological foundations of the 
creative genius of mankind ? 

The foundations of the creative genius of 
mankind are properties of the human mind. The 
human mind is always active in observing nature 
and its phenomena, in making general conclu- 
sions from these observations for guidance in the 
future activities. Since men learned to distin- 
guish between their own self (ego) and the mate- 
rial environment, the not own self (non ego), 
they noticed that all natural processes take place 
in a certain way and manner. Where and when 
men succeeded in ascertaining exactly these con- 
ditions in any special case they can invariably 
predict or even reproduce the natural process arti- 
ficially. In other words, observation leads to 
knowledge and knowledge to conscious creative 
work. By an exceedingly slow and painful proc- 
ess of mental growth men gradually arrive at 
the conclusion that mere passive observation of 
nature does not always lead to exact knowledge. 
Artificial experiments, experiments with a set 
purpose in view, were adopted. Nature answers 
direct questions, not revealing the whole truth, 
so men started to subject it to cross examinations. 

The results of the observations, experiments 
and conclusions suggested to the human mind 
were gradually co-ordinated into a system called 
"Science" 



THE ABOLITION OF POVERTY. 1 73 

As a civilizing factor science has no rival. 
Civilization is unthinkable without the knowl- 
edge of the immutable laws of nature, however 
crude and imperfect that knowledge may be. 
Science — perfected knowledge — is the most es- 
sential and solid foundation of culture and civil- 
ization. Knowledge is power to subject the 
material environment to human needs. Science 
is the strongest light at the disposal of men in 
their struggle for existence in the perplexing 
labyrinth of the universe. From the sociological 
point of view, science appears as the result of 
mind activity of countless generations of human 
beings, as the most precious inheritance of hu- 
mankind from the past, as the concentrated and 
digested achievement of the collective mind of 
the entire human race during its existence on the 
globe. Being the result of the achievement of 
the collective human mind, science is the rightful 
heritage of the entire human race. Each human 
being is entitled to his full share in the benefits 
of science. This appears to be an indisputable 
postulate of modern ethics. 

It is, however, a historical fact that the mar- 
velous power and light of knowledge was, as it is 
at present, monopolized by the ruling classes and 
misused by them to the detriment of the toiling 
masses of the people. In ancient times sacerdotal 
castes, priestcraft, monopolized knowledge and 
exploited it in the interest of its own and of the 
military caste. In ancient Greece and Rome 
learned slaves were employed as tutors for the 
slaveholding free citizens. In the middle ages 
science was confined to the obscure seclusion of 
monasteries. In our modern time science is 
made subservient to the ruling classes by the 



174 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

economic structure of society itself. The broad 
masses of the people are benefited by the appli- 
cation of science to useful arts indirectly and in- 
cidentally only, while the ruling plutocracy con- 
sciously and unscrupulously monopolizes the di- 
rect use and enjoyment of the power and light of 
science. The masses are kept, as far as is prac- 
ticable, in the dense darkness and weakness of ig- 
norance. 

Our present industrial system in this manner, 
by condemning the toiling masses to ignorance, 
undermines the very foundation of culture and 
civilization. By depriving the children of the 
proletariat of their inalienable rights to knowl- 
edge and enlightenment, Capitalism slowly, but 
surely, tends toward barbarity. 

Those children of the toiling masses, who, in 
spite of all impediments and obstacles in their 
way, by dint of perseverance and great self abne- 
gation attain higher education, are compelled by 
the existing economic condition to submit their 
professionally trained minds and scientific erudi- 
tion to the same direct exploitation by the para- 
sitic classes of the predatory rich, as their hum- 
ble brothers in the so-called lower walks of life. 
The intellectual proletariat is comparatively a 
great deal more exploited than the broader 
masses of laborers. The clerk, the teacher, the 
physician, the engineer, the chemist, and other 
professional men get on an average a great deal 
less in proportion for their high grade services, 
which demand years of careful study, special 
training and exclusive abilities, than the com- 
mon laborer for his merely physical exertions. 

According to the investigation of the United 
States Commissioner of Labor, the average earn- 



THE ABOLITION OF POVERTY. 1 75 

ings of the professional men and women living in 
the slums of the four typical large cities of Amer- 
ica — New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and 
Baltimore — is as follows : 

WEEKLY WAGES OR EARNINGS OF PROFESSIONALS. 

In Baltimore — 

Males $15.50 

Females 9.02 

In Chicago — 

Males , .$15.30 

Females • . 14.09 

In New York — 

Males $1377 

Females 11.80 

In Philadelphia — 

Males $1370 

Females 1329 

And the social status of the intellectual prole- 
tarian is correspondingly low. An illiterate 
millionaire occupies an immensely higher social 
position than the most eminent scientist who 
happens to be poor. In our parasitic state of so- 
ciety nothing is cheaper than human brains. 
Education does not pay. The most "successful" 
members of our present society are ignoramuses 
who claim that "education is a disqualification for 
business." This claim is substantiated by facts 
and observations. Indeed "business" is nowa- 
days conducted on principles repulsive to any 
intelligent mind, to any man with more or less 
refined feelings. And yet, in spite of the fact that 
the intellectual proletariat is practically suffering 
a great deal more from the capitalistic system 
than the laboring class in general, there is a great 
deal less class consciousness to be met with 
among the educated workers than among the 



I76 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

uneducated laborers. The consciousness of the 
solidarity of interests is rapidly growing among 
the working masses, as is clearly demon- 
strated by the spread and development of 
trade-unionism. At the same time the intellectual 
proletarians stubbornly persist in remaining on 
the strictly individualistic or anarchistic plan of 
action, in the United States at least, if not over 
the world. The intellectual proletarians do not 
seem to be conscious of the fact that they form 
the upper strata of the exploited toiling masses. 
The distinct "esprit de corps," manifesting itself 
in different trades pursued by workingmen, is en- 
tirely lacking among the members of various so- 
called liberal professions. Those few professional 
men, engineers, chemists, or other professionals 
who succeed in getting into a position of employ- 
ing men of their own specialty, instead of at- 
tempting to keep up the dignity and social 
status of their own calling, as a rule, do all in 
their power to underpay and overwork their 
assistants after the most approved style of the 
parasitic system under which we live. In this 
way we meet professional men who earn as much 
as street and floor sweepers in factories and 
shops. The intellectual proletarian is more in- 
clined, as a rule, to serve as a tool of the ex- 
ploiting capitalistic class, than the ordinary 
worker. The reason for this monstrous anomaly 
is apparent. The capitalistic, as well as any other 
social-economic system, has the inherent ten- 
dency to perpetuate itself. This self-perpetua- 
tion tendency is manifest in the spirit of the edu- 
cation given to the masses of the school children 
and to the overgrown children called adults 
through the medium of books, the periodical 



THE ABOLITION OF POVERTY. 1 77 

press, the pulpit, the stage, the bar, and public 
arena in general. The unsophisticated laboring 
class is fortunate enough to imbibe less of the 
subtle poison of anarchistic philosophy and para- 
sitic morals spread broadcast with lavish hands 
by the ruling parasitic class. Hence the more 
pronounced opposition to exploitation on the part 
of the working class proper. 

The educated proletarian, however, was and is 
constantly saturated with a philosophy of life 
and system of conduct favorable to the interest 
of the exploiting classes. 

The unsophisticated laborer is guided in his 
social economic relations by his common sense. 
The intellectual proletarian has his common sense 
obscured by all kinds of spiritual rubbish which 
he considers beyond and above criticism. 

The system of education which he receives is 
calculated to train his mind and enrich his 
knowledge in a certain special direction, so as to 
prepare him to be a useful small cogwheel in the 
gigantic mechanicism of modern production. 
On two of the most vital points of human inter- 
est — religion (in the broadest term of the word) 
and social economic relations of man to man — 
the intellectual proletarian is not only left igno- 
rant as a new-born babe, but he is taught from 
childhood to stunt or kill his critical faculties in 
the direction of revising the traditional views on 
the two points mentioned and receive these views 
implicitly. This accounts for the fact that we 
meet excellently informed and logically reason- 
ing specialists in all lines of activity, who profess 
the most antediluvian views on human social- 
economic relations. This accounts for the fact 
that there is such a frightful incongruity between 



I78 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

our material and spiritual environment. From 
the cradle to the grave this incongruity perse- 
cutes us as a nightmare and makes us thoroughly 
miserable. Conventional lies, false statements 
of facts, wrong standards of life, sordid ideas and 
ideals and monstrous unrealities make up the 
bulk of the education we receive at school, 
through the medium of books, periodicals, the 
pulpit, the stage, the bar, the public arena. 
Children are taught deliberately the opposite of 
truth as it is known to adults. And then, when 
they reach maturity, they have to go through the 
agony of mind occasioned by this disenchantment, 
by the stern realities of life. Many of them are 
demoralized by the unexpected temptations of life 
and only very few have grit enough to learn to 
forget and to start to think for themselves. 

Modern production is based on the strict ap- 
plication of the results of scientific research to the 
tasks of practical life. The means of production 
are controlled exclusively by the capitalistic class. 
Consequently the capitalistic class is interested, 
more than any other class in history, in the ad- 
vancement of science. Hence the generosity with 
which capitalists endow institutions of learning. 
At the same time the capitalist class is deeply 
conscious that only popular ignorance keeps it in 
power. Therefore there exists the tendency to 
guard the searchlight of knowledge from the 
toiling masses. Hence the tendency to make 
science exclusive and to foster snobbishness 
among the students of the higher institutions of 
learning. 

Andrew Carnegie, in a moment of frankness, 
made the following statement, or rather eonfes- 



THE ABOLITION OF POVERTY. 1 79 

sion, in his address at the opening of the Institute 
of Technology at Hoboken : 

"I had no inventive mind — simply a mind to 
use the inventions of others. I think a fitting 
epitaph for me would be, 'Here lies a man who 
knew how to get around him men cleverer than 
himself/ " 

A fitting epitaph for the class of social para- 
sites to which A. Carnegie belongs would be, 
"Here lies a class that knew how to appropriate 
the lion's share of the results of other people's 
toil and genius without giving them an equivalent 
for it." 

The mammoth industries of capitalism have 
their own experimental laboratories where the 
methods of production are improved and ration- 
alized. 

The blighting influence of the commercial 
spirit of our age permeates to the very holy of 
holies of the temples of science, penetrates into 
colleges, universities and academies. Rich pro- 
fessors hire poor but talented young scientists 
and appropriate without scrupules their ideas and 
discoveries. Professional inventors hire sci- 
entifically trained proletarians and appropriate 
the results of their labor in the same manner as 
capitalists exploit their wage slaves. An all 
around stealing of ideas is considered as a mat- 
ter of course in the demoralized "scientific 
world." The calling of a scientist is degraded in 
comparison with a common trade. Accordingly 
the spirit of gross commercialism and low-bred 
snobbishness rules in our higher institutions of 
learning. The very system of private endowment 
of institutions of learning by social parasites like 
Rockefeller and Carnesfie is vicious and demoral- 



l8o AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

izing in the extreme degree. It robs science of 
its independence and breeds toadyism and 
sycophancy. It turns over the source of spiritual 
enlightenment to ' the polluting influences of 
greedy plutocracy. 

Under our present system many a genius plods 
along in the darkness of ignorance behind a plow 
or as a common city laborer, while many a dunce 
who was fortunate in the choice of his parents 
is wasting his physical strength in sports and 
riotous living as a nominal student of a uni- 
versity. 

Dr. Felix Adler, the founder of the Ethical 
Culture movement, in his address on the occasion 
of laying the cornerstone of the new building of 
his society, said : "In the great cities our public 
schools are no longer in the full sense "common 
schools" — in the sense that they are common to 
all classes. In the poorer districts of great 
cities the public school is often very largely a 
class school, a poor school ; elsewhere it is pa- 
tronized by a part of the middle class and by the 
poor, but in increasing numbers the wealthy are 
no longer educating their children in the com- 
mon schools, but in class schools, where they 
meet only members of "their own class." Thus 
the gulf between the social classes — the poor and 
the rich — which is wide enough at present, is 
getting wider and wider and the very founda- 
tion of our political democracy is being con- 
stantly undermined." 

We know now what Capitalism, as a stage of 
civilization, is and how it manages to rule the 
unthinking multitudes in the interests of a class 
of nonproducers. We know that Capitalism 



THE ABOLITION OF POVERTY. 151 

fosters pauperism and poverty of the broad 
masses of the people. 

Let us now see and comprehend the forces that 
counteract capitalism and work for an advanced 
civilization, for a nobler culture, for a brighter 
future for humanity. These forces may be sum- 
marized as the physical moment in social evolu- 
tion. 

"For the poor ye have with you always/' is the 
somewhat fatalistic statement of the Old and 
New Testaments. The new gospel attempted 
even to make a virtue out of the sad necessity of 
poverty of the masses in a parasitical state of 
society. 

In the time of the Caesars the Roman mob 
raised the slogan, "Partem et cir censes" i. e., 
"free bread and entertainment/' 

Hood's workingman says: 

"No alms I ask, give me my task" 

Here are the arm, the leg, 
The strength, the sinews of a man 

To work and not to beg." 

The modern proletarian does not see fatalist- 
ically the necessity of poverty under all social- 
economic conditions. He does not implicitly be- 
lieve in the redeeming power of indigence. He 
considers it below his human dignity to clamor 
for public charity. He even fails to get enthusi- 
astic at the idea of getting a chance to sell his 
labor power at the market price to some profit 
monger styled employer. 

What the modern proletarian demands is 
neither more nor less than full social-economic 
justice, industrial democracy, the entire product 
of his toil. 



152 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

Such was the trend of the evolution of the 
ethical conceptions among "the submerged 
tenth/ 7 This evolution was in strict accordance 
with the social-economic development. 

In a primitive state of human consociation the 
means of production of the necessities of life are 
rather crude, the skill of the individual worker 
rather undeveloped. The struggle for existence 
must be severe. In such a state inadequate pro- 
duction of commodities, wealth underproduction, 
suggests to the physically strong, to the cun- 
ning and unscrupulous the expropriation of the 
physically weak and simple-minded by brute 
force or crafty stratagem. "To the victor be- 
long the spoils" and "woe to the conquered!" 
were the fundamental moral precepts of the pe- 
riod of almost purely animal struggle for exist- 
ence when Might w r as considered as identical 
with Right. This was the age when poverty 
appeared to be a permanent social institution and 
parasitism a normal mode of existence for the 
so-called higher classes or castes. 

Poverty and social parasitism were and always 
are linked inseparably together as cause and ef- 
fect, they are the opposite sides of the same 
medal of barbarity. Where there is a victorious 
social parasite there must be his victim — one of 
the poor. Social parasitism is considered as a 
mark of high distinction, while poverty is being 
looked down upon as a sign of despised weak- 
ness and meanness. 

The abnormal mode of living indulged in by 
the parasitic classes, their luxury, ostentation, 
idleness, arrogance and general viciousness — all 
symptoms of degeneration — must of necessity 
arouse the indignation and aversion of pure- 



THE ABOLITION OF POVERTY. 183 

minded but uncritical friends of the human race 
and lead them to the emotional but irrational 
idealization of poverty. 

The instance of the Roman mob crying for 
bread and entertainment at public expense 
clearly demonstrates that poverty leads to degra- 
dation. Extremes meet here as elsewhere. 

With the increasing development of the skill 
of the individual worker labor not only lost the 
stigma attached to it in the days of slavery, but 
gained in dignity. Hence the contempt with 
which Hood's laborer rejects charity and asks, 
"Give me my task." He prefers work with his 
own tools and hands to begging, in the proud 
consciousness of his manly labor-power and 
physical strength. The growing perfection of 
the tools of production and their monopolization 
by a class of non-producing profit-mongers called 
Capitalists transferred the center of gravity from 
the skilled workingman to the complex ma- 
chinery. The tool of production gained ascend- 
ency over its maker and user. The dead mechan- 
ism subjugated its living, thinking and feeling 
creator and turned him into its insignificant ap- 
pendage. The arm, the leg, the strength, the 
sinews of a man were replaced by metallic giants 
without blood, muscles, nerves or heart. Indi- 
vidual production was almost entirely super- 
seded by socialized production. However the 
means of production not only were not socialized, 
but were monopolized by non-producers. The 
existence of private property in the means of 
production, under a system of socialized produc- 
tion is absurd. Indeed there must be a mutual 
harmony between the system of production and 
the form of ownership of the means of produc- 



184 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

tion. An incongruity between the system of 
production and the mode of ownership of the 
means of production must necessarily lead to 
abnormal social-economic conditions. Abnormal 
social-economic conditions in their turn breed 
discontent among those who are compelled to 
carry the heavy burden of production and dis- 
tribution of national wealth without getting 
their share of the wealth they produce and dis- 
tribute. 

The dissatisfaction of the toiling masses with 
their fate resulted in a critical revision of the 
ethical conception of the institution of property in 
general and the so-called vested rights of the 
privileged classes in particular. 

This revision was accomplished on a thor- 
oughly scientific and rational basis and lead to 
the following conclusions : 

The commodities necessary to the civilized 
world represent natural products modified by 
human work. Work means energy applied to 
overcoming a resistance. For instance, a laborer 
who lifts a load overcomes the resistance caused 
by the attraction of the load to the earth. In 
order to accomplish this work the laborer has to 
spend the energy of his body, he has to waste a 
certain part of his muscles, sinews, tissues, nerves 
and blood. Every manufactured commodity rep- 
resents therefore the transformed elements of the 
body or bodies of those who participated in its 
production. Work is consequently the incarna- 
tion of human energy in modified natural prod- 
ucts. All men are children of Nature and are all 
equally entitled to its products as far as they do 
not embody human labor. Human labor, the 
energy applied by the laborer to the process of 



THE ABOLITION OF POVERTY. 155 

modification of natural products, appears to be 
the actual ethical foundation of property. If one 
man alone toiled on the modification of a product 
of nature, or raw material, in order to produce a 
commodity, this commodity would be his in- 
alienable individual property. If many partici- 
pated in the process of producing a certain com- 
modity — the last would represent their inalien- 
able common property. Any other claim on prop- 
erty except work, labor or personal exertion is 
unethical and parasitical. 

Our present social-economic system viewed in 
the light of modern ethics appears to be parasit- 
ical by its very nature. 

In order to comprehend the nature of our cap- 
italistic system we have to view it from two 
aspects, namely, as a system of production and as 
a stage of civilization. 

As a system of production the capitalistic sys- 
tem represents the results of applied sciences, it 
is practically machine production on a more or 
less pronounced co-operative foundation, social- 
ized production. 

The monopolization of means of production by 
a non-producing class of profit mongers called 
Capitalists gives the second aspect of the cap- 
italistic system and imparts its peculiarity to our 
stage of civilization. 

Socialized production, with means of produc- 
tion owned by non-producers, is the brief defini- 
tion of Capitalism. 

The mode of production is thoroughly modern, 
while the form of ownership of the means of 
production appears as a survival of the previous 
stage of production, as an anachronism. 

We have now to explain how this incongruity 



l86 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

between the advanced system of production and 
the belated mode of ownership of the means of 
production came about. 

Production of commodities is a process de- 
pendent on the skill and knowledge of the pro- 
ducers. One happy idea, one great invention, 
may cause a rapid advance in the mode of pro- 
duction. A series of inventions and technical 
discoveries may revolutionize the methods of 
production in a comparatively brief period of 
time and change to a considerable extent the ma- 
terial environment. 

The case is, however, entirely different with the 
psychical environment, the intellectual, emotional 
and ethical readjustment of social-economic in- 
terrelations between the various elements of so- 
ciety. The spiritual life of man being infinitely 
more subtle, more complex than his merely mate- 
rial activities, the psychical environment must 
naturally lag behind the economic development. 

It is generally conceded that men are the 
product of their material environment. Many 
people, however, do not realize that men, as in- 
telligent beings, in their turn exert a certain in- 
fluence on their material environment and are 
therefore to a marked degree active factors in the 
shaping of their own destinies. 

The tremendous complexity of forces which 
we call social laws have come down to us with 
the wisdom and ethical ideas of the past genera- 
tions. Social forces are psychical forces, forming 
the superstructure of social-economic conditions. 

Owing to mental inertia the psychical environ- 
ment of the uncritical majority of one generation 
represents a survival of the superstructure of 



THE ABOLITION OF POVERTY. 1 87 

material conditions of past generations. The 
dead rule the living. 

Says Karl Marx in the "Communist Mani- 
festo": "Does it require deep intuition to com- 
prehend that man's ideas, views and conceptions, 
in one word, man's consciousness, changes with 
every change in the conditions of his material 
existence, in his social relations and in his social 
life? What else does the history of ideas prove 
than that intellectual production changes its 
character in proportion as material production is 
changed? The ruling ideas of each age have 
ever been the ideas of the ruling class. When 
people speak of ideas that revolutionize society 
they do but express the fact that within the old 
society the elements of a new one have been cre- 
ated and that the dissolution of the old ideas keep 
even pace with the dissolutions of the old condi- 
tions of existence." 

Marx obviously speaks about the unthinking 
masses when he states that "the ruling ideas of 
each age have ever been the ideas of the ruling 
class." He, however, has in view the reasoning 
minority when he mentions "the elements of a 
new (society) created within the old society." 

Marx may be correctly classed with the truly 
scientific modern school of psychological sociolo- 
gists. 

The so-called Spencerian school of sociologists 
may be termed "vulgar sociologists" in the same 
sense as Marx called the middle class economists 
(as for instance Roscher) "vulgar economists." 
The most brilliant American exponent of the 
psychological school of sociology, Lester F. 
Ward, is in all respects superior to Herbert 
Spencer as an unbiased scientist. 



l88 ' AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

According to Herbert Spencer sociology is 
solely a descriptive science dealing with the 
status of society. According to Lester F. Ward 
sociology on the contrary is a purposive (teleo- 
logical) science about social forces. 

"Dynamic Sociology aims at the organization 
of happiness. Society, which is the highest prod- 
uct of evolution, naturally depends upon Mind, 
which is the highest property of matter. The 
dynamic department of psychology becomes also 
that of sociology the moment we rise from the in- 
dividual to society. The social forces are the 
psychic forces as they operate in the collective 
state of men. The organization of feeling is the 
central task of sociology" 

These few quotations will suffice to show the 
trend of the psychological school of sociology and 
its conception of social evolution as a conscious 
dynamic process, in which the human mind is the 
directive force, a conception that is in perfect har- 
mony with K. Marx's celebrated materialistic 
conception of history. 

The fundamental social force is the in- 
stinct of self preservation, a corollary of the 
law of conservation of energy, the desire 
to live as extensively and intensively as pos- 
sible. In order to satisfy this instinct man 
has to adapt himself to the material environ- 
ment or change the environment, as far as 
practicable, to suit his needs. The higher man 
stands on the evolutionary ladder, the more his 
conscious modification of the material environ- 
ment predominates over the passive unconscious 
or semiconscious adaptation to it. The civilized 
man, to a certain extent, creates an artificial en- 
vironment by the aid of his mind. The mind, 



THE ABOLITION OF POVERTY. 189 

not physical force, is the chief characteristic of 
mankind. Following cunningly the line of least 
resistance man advanced from mere brute exist- 
ence stage by stage ; from cannibalism to slavery, 
from slavery to serfdom, from serfdom to wage 
dependence, under the system of Capitalistic or 
machine production. Each of these stages of so- 
cial evolution had its peculiar material as well as 
psychical environment. By sheer force of inertia 
the psychical environment of slavery survived the 
material environment that justified the institution 
of slavery as an advanced stage in comparison 
with cannibalism. Not alone did the numerically 
insignificant slaveholders of the Southern States 
kept up slavery long after that system outlived 
its utility, they could not have kept it up if they 
had not been backed up by the surviving 
psychical environment of slavery. The same ap- 
plies to serfdom and the sociological side of 
Capitalism, the wage dependence, which creates 
social economic parasitism of the classes, and ma- 
terial and spiritual impoverishment of the masses. 

The mission of the thinking minority in his- 
tory consists in the modification of the psychical 
environment of the broad unreasoning masses of 
the people to correspond to the advanced material 
environment. 

In our stage of civilization this mission con- 
sists in the propagation or broad and deep dis- 
semination of collectivistic ideas and ideals and 
the extermination of individualistic or anarchistic 
proclivities. The watchword of the advance- 
guard of. a higher civilization is not "each for 
himself and the devil take the hindmost," but the 
brotherly principle "each for all and all for each." 
Their ideal is not competition, but emulation and 



190 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

co-operation. Their economic ideal is co-opera- 
tion and economic equality, and production for 
the satisfaction of human needs, but not for 
profit. The co-operative commonwealth will 
have no place for either millionaires or paupers, 
neither for exploiters nor exploited. Professor 
Simmel says, "The real significance of the mate- 
rialistic conception of history is contained in the 
fact that it was the first attempt to explain his- 
tory by means of a psychological principle. If 
hunger did not cause pain, if it were not, besides 
having its physiological function, a spiritual 
event, then it would never set free the events that 
we call history. The general synthesis that shall 
unite all the currents of existence, as known to 
us, into consistent ideas, that shall convert all 
external reality into spiritual values, and satisfy 
all the needs of the spirit with the results of 
knowledge — this great synthesis we still await." 

Professor Albion Small, of Chicago, a very 
conservative man, who never misses an oppor- 
tunity to draw a sharp line of demarcation be- 
tween sociology and socialism, says : 

"We have to find out w 7 hat men want, why they 
want it, in what proportion they want it to other 
things, that themselves, and others want, how 
the wants depend upon each other, how associa- 
tion is related to those wants (the real passage 
from psychology to sociology), and how to ap- 
praise the same in settling upon a theory of the 
conduct of life. The center of gravity of the 
newer sociology is the interest which moves the 
machinery of association. Everything else be- 
comes secondary. The central reality in asso- 
ciation is the evolution and correlation of inter- 
ests." (Science N. S. V. XV 383, p. 706.) 



THE ABOLITION OF POVERTY. I9I 

The demands of the modern proletariat aiming 
at the abolition of the social economic parasitism 
of the classes and of the poverty of the masses 
are, as we see, nothing else than the legitimate 
product of social evolution, the correlation of in- 
terests not of single class only, but of the entire 
human race. 

The modern proletariat movement is a logical 
outcome of social evolution in general. Since 
man succeeded in artificial modification of his 
material environment, since he succeeded in sub- 
jecting nature to the dictation of his will guided 
by mind, the animal struggle for existence be- 
tween single human individuals gradually lost 
its sharp sting. The primeval man was a 
gregarious being. The progressive development 
of the human mind led step by step to a relaxa- 
tion of extreme individualism and a correspond- 
ing strengthening of the dormant social and racial 
instincts. The passing relations between the 
representatives of the opposite sexes deepened 
into lifelong attachment and mutual affection. 
The human family — the prototype of the human 
race, the nucleus of the modern civilized society, 
the fundamental social unit, was differentiated. 
The attachment to progeny on the part of the 
parents proportionally increased and lead to the 
extension of the period of infancy, devoted to 
the task of preparing the coming generations for 
the emergencies of social life and strife. How- 
ever inimical the relations between single indi- 
viduals were at the period when the family 
shaped itself as a permanent social institution, 
the mutual relations between the members of the 
family were more or less friendly and intimate. 
The fierce animal struggle for existence was 



192 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

eliminated from family life and substituted by- 
mutual helpfulness. The family formed a so- 
cial oasis of "peace and good will" in the anarchic 
desert of general hostility, war and strife. The 
struggle for existence between single individuals 
gradually merged into a struggle between the 
fundamental social units, the families. 

The powerful civilizing agency of family life 
worked steadily in the direction of contracting 
the field of the animal struggle for existence, and 
extending the domain of civilization, mutual help- 
fulness and co-operation. The family grew into 
a clan, the clan developed into a tribe and so on 
and on, from the most simple to the most complex 
social aggregate. This process of consolidation 
of the human family is going on in our day and 
expresses itself in the political as well as economic 
field, in the growing consciousness of the soli- 
darity and even identity of the interests of larger 
and larger aggregates of men. The purest and 
most universal expression of this consciousness 
is the spreading conviction that the interests of 
the proletariat and the interests of the entire hu- 
man race are identical. 

The class consciousness of the modern prole- 
tariat, rightly understood, is nothing else but 
Race-consciousness, 

Race-consciousness was, is, and w T ill always re- 
main the highest ideal of humanity, the ideal of 
all those who suffered, labored and died in the 
battle for the great cause of humanity from time # 
immemorial to our days. 

The modern proletarian movement finds its 
clearest and truest expression in Socialism. 

Is socialism only a noble dream ? Or is it a 
science built on the impregnable rock of the ma- 



THE ABOLITION OF POVERTY. I93 

terialistic conception of history? Is it a panacea 
against all the social evils of the day? Is it a 
philosophy of life, a stage of culture and civiliza- 
tion, a class struggle? Why is the Socialistic 
movement subdivided into so many parts, factions 
and sects, often combatting each other bitterly ? 

These and similar questions involuntarily sug- 
gest themselves to every intelligent observer of 
the modern proletarian movement. The key to 
the solution of the problems indicated above is 
concealed in the complexity and many-sidedness 
of the movement. 

Different aspects of the social economic evolu- 
tion present themselves to different minds, ac- 
cording to their peculiarities and predilections. 
In order to have a closer and true conception 
about socialism it is necessary to view it from as 
many angles of vision as possible. Truth cannot 
be monopolized, and no particular school of so- 
cialism has a right to claim for itself infallibility. 
Any honest conviction, any sincere opinion on 
this, as on any other subject of human interest, 
has to be met with the spirit of broad tolerance 
and criticised in the light of science and reason. 

As a philosophy of life, socialism is the modern 
expression of Race-consciousness (in opposition 
to Anarchism or Individualism). It is based on 
the conviction that the interest of each man, 
woman, and child is served best by the advance- 
ment of the general welfare of humanity. This 
principle forms the foundation of international 
socialism. It is equivalent to the recognition of 
the perfect solidarity of interests of all men. The 
welfare of the proletariat is identical with the 
Welfare of the entire human race. The final aim 
of the Socialistic movement consists in the 



194 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

emancipation of humanity from the despotic sway 
of economic power of one class over the other. 
The classical call, " Proletarians of all countries, 
unite!" is a call to a united self defence of the 
overwhelming majority against the tyranny of a 
ridiculously small minority of exploiters of hu- 
man toil. As a constructive power socialism is of 
great importance, inasmuch as it presents all the 
results of scientific research, of human reason, 
and noble aspirations to the services of social- 
economic advancement. In the past and at pres- 
ent the social economic evolution was mainly, if 
not exclusively, an organic and consequently un- 
conscious process. Constructive socialism has in 
view the introduction of rational conscious- 
ness into social economic life, with the purpose of 
the organization of happiness on earth. It aims 
at the emancipation of humanity from the fetish- 
ism of wealth; from the worship of Mammon. 
As a factor in the advancement of culture and 
civilization socialism excels all others. It is in 
perfect harmony with the modern methods of 
production. The mode of appropriation has to be 
adapted to the mode of production. "Only from 
that moment," says F. Engels, "will the social 
process set into motion by them produce the re- 
sults desired by them in a larger and larger 
measure. It is the leap of humanity from the 
domain of necessity into the realm of Freedom." 

The modern phase of socialism expounded by 
Rodbertus, Marx and Lassalle may be most cor- 
rectly designated by the term Critical as opposed 
to the preceding stage of emotional Socialism. 
(St. Simon, Fourier, Cabet and others.) 

Emotional socialism developed into critical so- 



THE ABOLITION OF POVERTY. I95 

cialism and the last will serve as a foundation for 
constructive socialism. 

Constructive socialism will have to pursue a 
policy of adaptation to existing conditions in the 
very midst of the present civilization, clearing the 
ground, utilizing carefully the material at hand. 
One of these conditions is the existence of classes 
in present society, of distinct strata of people pur- 
suing their class interests, or what they consider 
as their class interests, in opposition to the inter- 
ests of the rest of humanity. This class con- 
sciousness is especially strongly developed among 
the members of the exploiting class and compara- 
tively weakly among the exploited masses. 

Marx, as a sociological thinker and economist, 
exposed the absurdities, incongruities and injus- 
tice permeating the class ridden system of parasit- 
ism called capitalism. He invited the proleta- 
rians of all countries, of all nations, to unite 
against the class-rule of the capitalists, for the 
purpose of destroying class-rule forever. 

According to his teachings, classes, as creations 
of certain irrational social economic conditions, 
will have to disappear along with the conditions 
that called them into life. The lasting, essential 
element of Marx's theory of society consists in 
the necessity of destruction of all social economic 
inequalities, in the elimination of the economic 
struggle for existence, from human society, and 
its replacement by co-operation and mutual help- 
fulness. F. Engels, in his introduction to the 
"Communist Manifesto/' said: 'The proletariat 
cannot attain its emancipation from the sway of 
the exploiting and ruling class, the bourgeoise, 
without at the same time and once for all emanci- 
pating society at large (the human race) from all 



I96 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

exploitation, oppression, class distinctions and 
class struggle/' 

A clearer statement of the very essence of so- 
cialism, as the highest ideal of the human race, 
of Race-consciousness, can hardly be conceived. 
How truly F. Engels voiced the ideas of Marx 
may be gathered from the following quotations 
from the Communist Manifesto : 

"If the proletariat, during its contest with the 
bourgeoise (middle class, capitalists) is com- 
pelled by force of circumstances to organize it- 
self as a class, if, by means of a revolution it 
makes itself the ruling class, and as such sweeps 
away by force the old conditions of production, 
then it will, along with these conditions, have 
swept away the conditions for the existence of 
class-antagonism, and of class generally, and will 
thereby have abolished its own supremacy as a 
class. In place of the old bourgeois (capitalistic) 
society with its classes and class-antagonism, we 
shall have an association in which the free de- 
velopment of each is the condition for the free 
development of all. * * * 

« * * * ^jj p rev i ous historical movements 
were movements of minorities, or in the interest 
of minorities. The proletarian movement is the 
selfconscious, independent movement of the im- 
mense majority. National differences and an- 
tagonism between peoples (nations) are daily 
more and more vanishing. The supremacy of the 
proletariat will cause them to vanish still faster. 
United action of the leading civilized countries 
at least is one of the first conditions for the 
emancipation of the proletariat. In proportion 
as the exploitation of one individual by another 
is put an end to, the exploitation of one nation 



THE ABOLITION OF POVERTY. I97 

by another will also be put an end to. In pro- 
portion as the antagonism between classes within 
the nation vanishes, the hostility of one nation 
to other nations will come to an end." 

The history of humanity may be, to an extent 
at least, looked upon as the record of struggles 
between different classes for supremacy and 
power. The feudal class, for instance, was con- 
quered by the middle class (the bourgeois), 
which now rules the world through the power of 
organized material wealth. The so-called "Great 
French Revolution" is considered to be the line 
of demarcation between the rule of the feudal and 
the rule of the middle class. The last won its 
battle with the aid of the propertyless fourth 
class, the proletariat. The proletariat played the 
part of the ram with the aid of which the fortress 
of feudalism was battered down into dust. 
When the fortress was demolished the ram was 
left to its own destinies. Political liberty (not 
freedom), political equality (in the abstract) and 
fraternity (of the Cain variety) gained by the 
price of torrents of proletarian blood, were turned 
by the middle class into means for the enhanced 
enslavement of the toiling masses. In modern po- 
litical democracies the property-less class, the 
proletariat, is used as voting cattle. 

There is nothing left to the proletariat except 
to fight its oppressor and exploiter with his own 
weapon and on his own ground. In order to be 
successful in this struggle the proletariat must 
cultivate class-consciousness, which does not 
mean class-exclusiveness or class hatred. 

The struggle of the middle class was supposed 
at the time when the struggle was going on to be 
in the interest not of a new exploiting class, but 



I98 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

rather in the interest of all humanity. This con- 
viction imparted the inspiration to noble deeds 
of self sacrifice on the part of the great actors of 
the French Revolution. The middle class, after 
its selfish class interests were satisfied, became 
philistinized and conservative. 

The struggle between the proletariat and the 
middle class capitalism is of an eminently 
broader and deeper significance than the strug- 
gle of any other classes in the history of hu- 
manity. 

It is a class struggle only if viewed from the 
surface. 

As a matter of fact it is the struggle of the 
entire human race against class-rule and exploita- 
tion of men by men. 

Socialism is the movement of the human race 
having in view the reconstruction of our para- 
sitic social economic institutions on principles of 
reason, justice and love. 

That Capitalism has outlived its utility and 
must be succeeded by Collectivism or Socialism 
is admitted even by conservative professors of 
universities endowed by plutocrats, as for in- 
stance Professor Oscar L. Triggs of the Chicago 
University. 

In his article "Industrial Feudalism — and 
After" he summarizes his views on social eco- 
nomic conditions of our time as follows : 

(1) An industrial order is now being estab- 
lished which corresponds in all essential respects 
with what is known in political history as feudal- 
ism. 

(2) The political order, so far as it is shaped 
by the same individuals who control industry, 
partakes also of the nature of feudalism; hence 



THE ABOLITION OF POVERTY. I99 

the recrudescence in the United States of the 
principles of Hamilton and the dominance of the 
Republican party. 

(3) When the feudalistic tendency cul- 
minates in the establishment of a centralized 
control of all industries, then the conscious and 
deliberate appropriation of that power of the 
people will begin, till work becomes free and the 
worker self directive. 

(4) Biology and psychology testify to the 
ultimate triumph of the principle of self-activity. 
In other words, all the forces of national evolu- 
tion are on the side of the people. (Wilshire's 
Magazine, March, 1903.) 

In order to comprehend how the psychical 
environment is being adjusted to the changed 
material environment, it is necessary to take into 
consideration the psychology of the masses of 
humanity. 

The masses of humanity at any given time, at 
any period of history, may be roughly divided 
into three distinct classes : the philistines, the 
kickers and the thinkers. The philistines make 
up the overwhelming majority of the people; 
the kickers are always in the minority, and the 
thinkers form the exceptional element of human 
society. 

Who are the philistines? They are the people 
living according to the w T isdom of past genera- 
tions, according to tradition, authority, prece- 
dents. The philistines have no desire to reason 
analytically, critically. They do not care to 
know, but are anxious to believe. They are 
fatalists by inclination. To them the world is at 
a standstill. Their motto is "It was, is and will 
be exactly the same at all times since creation to 



200 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

the crash of doom/' They are spiritually asleep 
and hate to be disturbed from their slumber. 
Stupidly good natured under normal conditions, 
they may turn furious when forcibly aroused 
from their mental lethargy by extraordinary 
events. Once aroused they may turn dangerous 
as wild beasts and commit any atrocities. They 
make up the mob of violent popular upheavals 
called revolutions. 

Who are the kickers? They are the people 
who feel instinctively that the wisdom of past 
generations, called tradition, authority, prece- 
dent, in the course of time outlives its utility and 
turns into folly. They do not have the capacity 
for critical or analytical reasoning, but do not 
show any aversion to independent thought. They 
are rather anxious to know and at the same time 
ready to believe. They are not fatalists, they 
feel instinctively that the world is always chang- 
ing, that past, present and future are not identi- 
cal. They are half asleep and half awake spiritu- 
ally, and do not object to being aroused from 
their slumber once in a while and for a short 
period of time. Once aroused they form an 
active element in historical events and drag after 
themselves the usually inert masses of philistines. 
The kickers are not satisfied with the material 
conditions around them; they vaguely realize 
that these conditions may be and ought to be 
changed, modified or revolutionized, but they do 
not possess any clearness of vision. 

Who are the thinkers ? They are the people who 
clearly see that each generation has to live in 
accordance with its own wisdom and in conform- 
ity with the ever changing material environment. 
Tradition, authority, precedent, are considered 



THE ABOLITION OF POVERTY. 201 

by them as so many fetiches of a barbaric past. 
They are able and willing to reason critically, 
analytically, and trust only in the testimony of 
their senses and logic. They draw a sharp line 
of demarcation between the knowable and un- 
knowable and do not trouble themselves about 
the last. They are determinists in philosophy. 
To them the world appears as a perpetual change 
and transformation. They are thoroughly alive 
spiritually. They know and know that they know. 
They form at all times the ferment, the leaven 
of social life, the advance guard of humanity, 
its controlling and directing element. They sup- 
ply consciousness and clear vision to the kickers, 
and, through the medium of the last, drag the 
philistine masses forward and onward on the 
highway of progress. 

In our time of general unrest and dissatisfac- 
tion there are many transitory variations of the 
just characterized three main social types, there 
are people who are rather hard to classify, as 
they possess some features of one and some of 
another type at once. As a clear distinct type, 
the middle class reformers of our time are kick- 
ers, Socialists are thinkers. And yet we meet 
philistines among Socialists and once in a while 
thinkers among reformers. 

We will, however, ignore here the exceptions 
and try to point out the differences between mid- 
dle-class reformers and socialists. 

Middle-class reformers, as a rule, do not seem 
to realize the immense complexity and strict law- 
fulness of social economic life and activity. They 
believe in the miracle working power of paper 
legislation. They fail to see that it is futile to 
even attempt to introduce legislative measures 



202 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

(however apparently salutary to the oppressed 
classes) which are out of joint with the entire 
system of the prevailing social-economic institu- 
tions ; they fail to realize that such measures, 
even if introduced and passed, would have neces- 
sarily to remain either inoperative or even in- 
jurious to the very class they were intended to 
benefit. Reformers usually concentrate their at- 
tention exclusively on some single symptom of 
social economic disease, and claim that all that 
is necessary for the restoration of social economic 
health is to make that particular symptom to dis- 
appear. The single taxers, for instance, con- 
centrate all their attention on one single mode of 
exploitation — rent. Currency reformers see but 
one source of social economic evils — speculation 
with the medium of exchange. Direct legisla- 
tionists believe that if every citizen should have 
his say, be it wise or otherwise, on all matters 
of importance to the State, the millennium would 
be an accomplished fact, etc., etc. The single 
taxers do not comprehend that it is absurd to 
insist on the nationalization of one object of plu- 
tocratic monopoly, the soil, while defending 
"vested rights" on other objects of plutocratic 
monopoly, namely means of production in gen- 
eral. Direct legislationists fail to realize that 
capitalism has no use for enlightened citizenship, 
but assiduously cultivates voting cattle. The 
currency reformers fail to grasp the idea that it 
is of paramount importance to introduce rational 
and just economic relations in general before at- 
tempting to modify the medium of exchange, that 
speculation is one of the most essential methods 
of capitalistic economics. The prohibitionists fail 
to consider that a state of society based on ex- 



THE ABOLITION OF POVERTY. 203 

ploitations of human labor cannot get along with- 
out intoxicants. Honest and sincere reformers 
have nothing to expect from Capitalism. 

Socialism is the reform of all reforms. It is 
rather inclusive than exclusive. It contains all 
that is of lasting value in bona fide reform move- 
ments and vastly more than that on a deeper, 
broader and sounder foundation than the average 
reformers dare to dream of. 

Socialism for instance demands together with 
the single-taxers the nationalization of the soil, 
but at the same time demands the nationalization 
of all means of production and distribution. So- 
cialist platforms contain a direct legislation plank. 
Under collective ownership and operations of all 
the means of production and transportation, spec- 
ulation with the medium of exchange, as any 
speculation in general, would be impossible. So- 
cialism does not confuse symptoms of social dis- 
ease with the disease itself. It strikes at the root 
of all social evils, exploitations of men by men, 
parasitism. It does not pretend to change human 
nature. It proposes only to do away with the 
very incentive for exploitation of men by men 
by substituting collective instead of private own- 
ership of the means of production and distribu- 
tion, by inaugurating economic democracy with- 
out which political democracy is a snare and 
delusion. Socialism, as a primarily humanitarian 
movement, deserves the interest and sympathy 
of all true lovers of mankind. Socialism stands 
for brotherly co-operation of all the members of 
the human family for the purpose of exploiting 
the inexhaustible treasures of their common 
mother, nature. It stands for emulation instead 
of competition, for the survival of the best in- 



204 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

stead of the most cunning and unscrupulous, for 
the elevation instead of degeneration of the hu- 
man type. The question now arises: How will 
Socialism, as materialized in the co-operative 
commonwealth of the future, be inaugurated? 

Far as we may penetrate with our spiritual 
vision into the gray vista of hoary antiquity of 
the human race, we clearly distinguish two car- 
dinal social forces contending for supremacy. 
These social forces are, on one side, the will of 
the broad masses of the people and on the other 
side the brute force in the hands of a ruling 
minority. 

At the dawn of civilization the brute forces 
reigned supreme, while the will of the common 
people was but vaguely expressed. With the 
growing spiritual development of the masses, 
however, the physical force concentrated in the 
hands of the organized ruling minority was more 
and more counter-balanced by the popular will 
or public opinion. The gradual pacification of 
European international relations with the devel- 
opment of democratic political institutions is a 
fact that cannot escape the attention of the clear 
sighted student of modern history. Wars have 
become scarce since the second part of the last 
century, at least among civilized nations. The 
bullet is kept in check by the ballot in interna- 
tional affairs. At the same time European na- 
tions are compelled by the ruling classes to spend 
their very substance for the maintenance of an 
armed peace. The European continent, figura- 
tively speaking, bristles with bayonets, glares 
with the barbaric splendor and offensive ostenta- 
tion so characteristically peculiar to standing 
bodies of scientifically trained and artistically 



THE ABOLITION OF POVERTY. 205 

drilled professional wholesale assassins called 
military men. The science and art of wholesale 
murder called war has reached in modern times 
a stage of perfection calculated to delight the 
heart of the most unrelenting enemy of the hu- 
man race. Militarism is celebrating odious or- 
gies in the two most civilized countries of the 
European continent, Germany and France. The 
recent policy of the government of the United 
States shows clearly some tendency towards mili- 
tarism. 

The ruling classes are getting uneasy. The 
growing intelligence of the toiling masses ap- 
pears as a menace to the power of the parasitic 
minority. It is against "the internal enemy", 
the "dangerous classes", that the ruling parasitic 
minority prepares its murderous cohorts of hired 
wholesale assassins called armies and militias. 
At the same time the proletariat, tHe toiling 
masses, remain unarmed and unskilled in the 
arts of war. 

There is the danger. The parasitic classes are 
ready to drown in torrents of blood of the prole- 
tariat any serious attempt on the part of the last 
to proclaim the co-operative commonwealth. As 
in the case of international relations — it is the 
ballot alone that can keep in check the bullet. 
The proletariat has to realize that its only salva- 
tion consists in the intelligent use of civic rights 
before it will be too late. The proletariat has to 
realize that its only salvation consists in inde- 
pendent, class-conscious political action. It has 
to realize that it cannot expect anything good 
from the old capitalistic parties and everything 
from their own Socialist party. The old politi- 
cal parties presented to the working classes tokens 



2o6 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

of their devotions to the interests of the prole- 
tariat in Homestead, Pullman and the bull-pens 
of the anthracite region. The old parties tolerate 
child labor, sweat shops, convict labor. The old 
parties are honeycombed with demagogic jug- 
glery and political corruption. The old parties 
Christianize and civilize Filipinos by water cures. 
The workingmen have to realize that to vote for 
the old parties means to vote for the perpetuation 
of wage slavery, for the degradation of the noble 
human being to the level of a witless beast of 
burden. 

Economic or Social Democracy means organ- 
ized peace, the rule of the will of the people ex- 
pressed by the ballot; it means the relegation of 
brute force in the state affairs to the relics of 
the barbaric past. 

The struggle between the survival of the bar- 
baric past and the ideals of the future, between 
the will and interest of the toiling masses and 
the power of the exploiters is going on before our 
eyes. 

There is a constant war going on between 
Labor and Capital. The cause of that class 
struggle between the producers of all material) 
wealth on one and the owners of all the means 
of production and distribution on the other side 
is not generally known. The economic interests 
of these two classes of contemporary society are 
directly opposed to each other. The toilers 
strive to retain as much of the product of their 
labor as it is possible under the prevailing social 
economic conditions. The owners of the means 
of production and distribution, in their turn, en- 
deavor to appropriate as much of the product of 



THE ABOLITION OF POVERTY. 20/ 

the toil of their wage-slaves as they may succeed 
in doing. 

The relations between the modern producer 
and his master, between the proletarian and the 
capitalist, are regulated chiefly by the prevailing 
social economic conditions, expressed and embod- 
ied in the political institutions controlled and di- 
rected by the ruling class. The political institu- 
tions of a country make up in their entirety what 
we briefly call the State. 

The class that succeeds in getting control of 
the State must of necessity be in power to modify 
social economic conditions to suit best its class 
interests. That class gains the power to dictate 
the terms to all other classes of the nation and 
may enforce submission to its will in the name 
and by the authority of the State. Political 
power and economic power supplement each 
other. The ruling classes naturally use their 
economic power as a means to acquire and retain 
political power and then use the last as a means 
to increase the first. On the other hand, political 
dependence leads inevitably to economic depend- 
ence. 

There can be no actual political equality with- 
out economic democracy, or social democracy. 

The conclusions suggested by these general 
considerations may be applied directly to the 
relations between Capital and Labor in the United 
States. 

Who actually controls our National, State and 
Municipal administrations? Who spends mil- 
lions of dollars on political campaigns ? Who are 
the actual masters of our legislative and execu- 
tive, our judiciary and military institutions? 
Who owns the entire press, who inspires the pul- 



208 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

pit, who controls our institutions of learning? 
Who are the real commanders of our army and 
navy? To put these questions means to answer 
them. The Capitalists capture the State for all 
there is in it, and mainly for the social economic 
power it gives them over the voting cattle, the 
nominally free citizens of the United States. 
Both old Capitalistic parties grossly flatter 
these nominal citizens and promise them great 
things before election. After election the same 
"fellow citizens" who voted into power the rep- 
resentatives of one or the other capitalistic par- 
ties are neglected, bulldozed and maltreated. 

The average American proletarian fails to see 
the connection between his "job" and his "bal- 
lot", between economics and politics. He will, 
however, have to open his eyes in this connection 
before he may expect to improve his conditions 
materially and lastingly. 

As long as the capitalists control our National, 
State and Municipal administration through the 
medium of any or both of the old parties this ad- 
ministration will be managed in direct violation 
of the rights of labor. As long as capitalists 
will have a chance to spend millions on influenc- 
ing the "voting cattle" in national and local polit- 
ical campaigns the political state will be appro- 
priated by them and their hired servants, the 
professional politicians. 

As long as the capitalists will make and exe- 
cute laws the laboring class will be forced to 
break laws and be punished for doing it. As 
long as the capitalists remain the actual com- 
manders of our armies and navy these tremen- 
dous physical forces will be used for the exter- 



THE ABOLITION OF POVERTY. 209 

mination of "riotous strikers" and conquests of 
new markets. 

As long as the capitalists own the press, the 
pulpit, the bar, the educational institutions, gen- 
erations after generations will be trained in a 
spirit directly inimical to the toiling masses. 

In order to ha.ve at least a ghost of a show of 
success in their struggle against private capitalism 
the proletariat must fight with weapons just as 
efficient as those of their adversaries, must meet 
the enemy on its own ground of independent 
class-conscious and race-conscious action. The 
laboring class must strike at the ballot box for 
their own party, the Socialist party. By captur- 
ing the political power the proletariat will be 
enabled to make and execute its own laws and 
turn the United States into a gigantic labor 
union. The transition from Capitalism to Social- 
ism will then be a peaceful political change (coup 
d'etat) instead of a bloody civil war. 

Socialism, after the co-operative common- 
wealth is inaugurated, proposes to abolish all 
economic class privileges, to introduce a new era 
of civilization, an era of peace and good will to 
all men, women and children, to establish the 
supreme authority of the will of the toiling 
masses, of the ballot, to abolish forever the reign 
of the brute force of the bullet. Under social- 
ism, poverty and parasitism, these Siamese twins 
of the harlot of Capitalism, will have no place. 
There will be no millionaires and no paupers. 

The humanizing, pacifying influence of social- 
ism is being felt even now in Germany and 
France. 

During the excitement of the Franco-Prussian 
war, when jingoism and race hatred reached their 



2IO AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

climax, the German and French socialists were 
the only ones who remained cool headedly and 
warm heartedly on the high ground of humani- 
tarian principles of brotherly love, the only ones 
who had the courage to protest most emphatic- 
ally against the fratricidal war among German 
and French proletarians, instigated by and in the 
interests of the parasitic classes. 

The democratizing influence of Socialism was 
and is now demonstrated in France. 

When the French middle class republic was in 
danger of being destroyed by the reactionary 
elements of the feudal aristocracy, the church 
and plutocracy, backed by an army organization 
rotten to the very core, putrid with moral cor- 
ruption and reeking with sensual filth, the social- 
ist stepped manfully to the front and saved the 
ballot from the bullet. When this unholy trinity 
of the scions of feudalism, plutocracy and mili- 
tarism, in order to cover its crimes and atroci- 
ties, accused and punished an innocent man, the 
socialists again saved the honor of their nation 
by exonerating the innocent man and unmasking 
the actual perpetrators of the heinous crime of 
treason. 

The tyrannical proclivities of the loquacious 
Emperor of Germany are kept in check not by the 
weak-kneed middle class liberals, but by the vig- 
orous opposition of the sturdy Social Democratic 
party. The encroachment upon popular rights on 
the part of the feudal aristocracy of Prussia, the 
agrarians, meets its strongest opposition from the 
social democrats. It is the Social Democratic 
Party of Germany that exposes the moral rotten- 
ness of the parasitic classes and systematically 
champions the interests of the exploited masses. 



THE ABOLITION OF POVERTY. 211 

The most conservative scientists like Prof. 
Mommsen and others testify on their own accord 
to it publicly and advise the people to vote for the 
only political party in Germany, that means well 
with the people and has the moral stamina to de- 
fend right against might. It is significant enough 
and augurs well for the future co-operative com- 
monwealth that socialists form the backbone of 
the French bourgeois republic and preserve the 
liberties of the German middle class against the 
onslaughts of the surviving remnants of feudal- 
ism. Doing this the party of the proletariat is 
true to the traditions of the glorious past of the 
class it represents. Not the middle class, not the 
bourgeois, vanquished feudalism. With the touch- 
ing naivete of a young, good-natured giant the 
proletariat left the fruit of his victory in the hands 
of the rapacious middle class. When in the posses- 
sion of political power the middle class allied 
itself with the former foe, the remnants of the 
feudal aristocracy, against the proletariat. The 
proletariat of Europe profited by the lesson of 
history and organized itself into an independent 
political socialistic party, serving as an advance 
guard of the world wide international socialist 
movement to guard the ballot from the bullet. 

Approximately similar conditions prevail in the 
United States. The abolition of African slavery 
was accomplished in the interests of white wage 
slave-holders of the North. The civil war was a 
struggle between the aristocracy of the South and 
the middle class of the North. 

The same political party that was instrumental 
in the abolition of chattel slavery gave ascendency 
to Caucasian wage slavery, and is turned now 
into a conservative power in the United States. 



212 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

The Democratic party received its death blow at 
the moment it identified itself with African chat- 
tel slavery. Since that moment it has turned 
into a reactionary power in the United States. It 
lost its grip on the current events of the age, it 
failed to adjust itself to the new social economic 
conditions and ceased to represent any vital prin- 
ciples. Astute politicians like Mark Hanna are 
clear sighted enough to recognize and candidly 
admit that the battle royal between the modern 
wage slave-holders, the capitalists, and the prole- 
tariat will be waged between the Republican and 
Socialistic parties. 

Meanwhile the Republican party has already 
stepped in the footprints of its predecessors, the 
Democratic party. The Republican party has 
identified itself with the cause of wage-slavery 
and will be compelled by the victorious march of 
the party of the proletariat, the Socialist party, 
to take the back seat occupied now by the expiring 
Democratic party. 

The Socialist party, the party of the toiling 
masses, is destined to complete the work begun 
by the abolitionists and is bound to turn into a 
ruling power in the United States in the near 
future. The old abolitionists fought for the 
emancipation of African slaves ; the new aboli- 
tionists, the Socialists, are fighting for the aboli- 
tion of all kinds of slavery, for the abolition 
of parasitism and poverty. The gigantic 
strides made by the vast capitalistic consolida- 
tions (trusts, monopolies), the adventurous 
imperialistic colonial policy of the United States, 
the growth of militarism and many other events 
could not fail to advance civic education among 
the masses, could not fail to open the eyes of the 



THE ABOLITION OF POVERTY. 



213 



most apathetic philistines to the dangers of ap- 
proaching plutocratic feudalism. 

As a result we see and feel that Socialism is in 
the air. The vote cast during the last election 
for the Socialist party reached about 300,000. 

The following figures show the marvelous 
growth of Socialism all over the world : 



1895 
1897 

1894 
1898 
1900 

1872 
1884 
1887 
1890 
1892 

1895 
1898 
1900 

1885 
1888 
1892 
1898 

1867 
1871 
1874 
1877 
1878 
1881 
1884 
1887 
1890 

1893 
1898 
1903 

1895 
1902 



AUSTRALIA. 



. 90,000 

.750,000 



BELGIUM. 



.334,500 

.543,324 
.463,000 



DENMARK. 



315 

6,805 

8,408 

17,232 

: .. .20,098, 

25,019 

. . 32,000 

43,285 

FRANCE. 

30,000 

91,000 

800,000 

1,000,000 

GERMANY. 

30,000 

101,927 

351,670 

486,843 

437,158 

3H,96l 

599,990 

767,128 

1,427,008 

1,786,738 

2,125,000 

3,100,000 

GREAT BRITAIN. 

55,000 

350,000 



HOLLAND. 
1901 39,000 



ITALY. 



1893 20,000 

1895 76,400 

1897 134,496 

1900 215,841 



NORWAY. 
SERVIA. 
SPAIN. 



1901 7,013 

1895 55,ooo 



1893 7,ooo 

1895 14,000 

1897 28,000 

1901 25,000 

SWEDEN. 

1902 48,000 

SWITZERLAND. 

189O 13,500 

1893 29,822 

1896 36,468 

1901 100,000 

UNITED STATES. 

1890 13,704 

1891 16,552 

1892 21,512 

1893 25,666 

1894 30,020 

1895 34,869 

1896 36,275 

1897 .-. 55,550 

1898 91,749 

1900 135,770 

1902 about 300,000 



214 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

The rate of increase of the Socialistic vote in- 
dicates a marvelous growth of public conscious- 
ness. 

The question now arises: will history repeat 
itself literally? Will the abolition of parasitism 
and poverty, closely connected with Capitalism 
and wage slavery, be brought about by a bloody 
civil war just as the abolition of chattel slavery, 
or will it be accomplished peacefully by the 
ballot? 

There seems to be one factor in the modern 
abolition movement called Socialism, that rather 
augurs a pacific solution of the problem. 

The abolition of chattel slavery was accom- 
plished in a contest between two factions of the 
same race in the interests of a new class of slave- 
holders called Capitalists. The slaves themselves 
belonged to a different and lower race, that took 
but a small part in the struggle for their own 
emancipation. 

The abolition of wage slavery is in the interest 
of the entire human race, of economic democracy 
and true freedom. The toiling masses form the 
overwhelming majority of the people and voters. 
If the wage slaves only waken to the conscious- 
ness of the solidarity of their interests and power, 
if the proletarians will make up their minds to 
express their will by votes for their own political 
party, the victory may be, must be, a peaceful 
one. 

If, however, the wage workers will stubbornly 
refuse to take part in independent political action, 
they will gradually be disfranchised as the ne- 
groes in the South were, and the bullet will kill 
the ballot. One part of the proletariat called 
soldiers will be ordered to shoot into uncon- 



THE ABOLITION OF POVERTY. 21 5 

ditional submission to the plutocratic feudal lords 
the rest of the proletariat called laborers, while 
the lords themselves will rub their hands and look 
on in fiendish glee. 

To avoid this the proletarian movement must 
do an immense amount of educational work; it 
must appeal to the brains and hearts of men; it 
must use as weapons exact knowledge, critical 
thought, ideas and ideals. As educators in the 
most comprehensive sense of the word the lead- 
ers of the modern abolition movement must ex- 
ercise a great deal of patience, tolerance and for- 
bearance. 

First of all, and above all, however, they must 
possess the courage of their convictions and never 
cease their educational crusade till their mission 
is fulfilled and parasitism and poverty are no 
more. With the gentle Quaker poet and singer 
of the old abolition movement let us say : 

"Friend of the poor ! — go on — 

Speak for the truth and right! 
Onward — though hate and scorn 

Gloom round thee as the night. 
Speak — at each word of thine, 

Some ancient fraud is riven, 
And through its rents of ruin shine 

The sunbeams and the heaven ! 

"Speak — for thy voice will be 

Welcome in each abode 
Where manhood's heart and knee 

Are bended but to God ; 
Where honest bosoms hold 

Their holy birthright well ; 
Where Freedom spurns at Mammon's gold; 

Where Man is not to sell. 

"Speak for the poor man's cause — 
For labor's just reward — 



2l6 AMERICAN PAUPERISM. 

For violated law 

Of Nature and of God! 

Speak — thunder in Oppression's ear, 
Deliverance to the slave! 

"Ay, speak — while there is time, 
For all a freeman's claim, 

Ere thought becomes a crime, 
And Freedom but a name! 

While yet the Tongue and Pen 
And Press are unforbid 

And we dare to feel and act as man- 
Speak — as our fathers did ! 

"The land we love ere long 

Shall kindle at thy call; 
Falsehood and charter 3 d Wrong 

And legal Robbery, fall : 
The proud shall not combine — 

The secret counsel cease — 
And underneath his sheltering vine 

Shall labor dwell in peace! 

"Perish shall all which takes 

From Labor's board and can! 
Perish all which makes 

A Spaniel of the Man! 
With freshened courage, then, 

On to the glorious end — 
Ever the same as thou has been — 

The poor man's fastest friend!" 



SUPPLEMENT 



JESUS or MAMMON? 



BY 

J. FELIX 

"I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, 
make straight the way of the Lord/' 

Crying aloud against the blasphemy of those 
who devour the exploited laborer, and for a pre- 
tense make long prayers and give alms in His 
name ! Crying bitterly from a wilderness of con- 
tradictions against a society which, teaching the 
young in the doctrines of the Redeemer that 
it is more blessed to serve than be served, to 
give than to receive, yet supports a system under 
which those who will not devour must chose to 
be devoured ! Crying piteously to those who pro- 
fess His religion of love to come boldly forth and 
help make the paths straight, that love may walk 
without brutality and lead humanity to that king- 
dom of God, where love may be a living law in- 
stead of a dead letter. Will ye never know the 
Master's meaning when He warned you against 
offending the little ones ? Will ye never perceive 
that when ye teach a child to love neighbor as 
self, in honor to prefer one another, ''that all these 
things shall be added," that righteousness and 
truth and honesty of dealing are sure paths to 
217 



2l8 SUPPLEMENT. 

happiness and success in life and then push that 
innocent soul out into a world of greed where 
money is power, where every path is closed to 
those who try to practice what you teach ; will ye 
never learn that in doing this ye give mortal 
offense to His lambs? Can ye not see that only 
by throwing all your energies into the effort to 
do away with conditions which make a Christian 
life a practical impossibility can you escape the 
terrible sentence of the children s Christ ? It were 
better ye had a millstone tied to your necks and 
ye were even cast into the sea where it is deep- 
est. Come, brethren, let us reason together. Do 
you not, fellow Christian, dread for your chil- 
dren and all posterity that which has been your 
fate ? Surely not all who claim to follow "in His 
steps" are despicable hypocrites! Surely my 
brothers and sisters of the faith are all as honest 
and sincere as am I. That being so, they must 
suffer as I do. They, too, must feel at war with 
themselves. They, too, must feel lone and weary 
and heartsick at their vain endeavors to live the 
Christ life. Surely I am only a son of man and 
not the only son of man to feel the horror of 
subjection to conditions which make. His way a 
practically impossible way. To be sure He said 
that there would be terrible suffering and many 
bleeding hearts and estrangements of kindred for 
His sake and the coming of His kingdom. Oh, 
hut He also made a promise. He never said 
that poor humanity must forever be at war and 
suffer everlastingly. He bade us make straight 
the crooked paths. He commissioned us to re- 
move all obstacles. We are to overcome Mam- 
mon and the greedy horde of his worshippers. 
We are to clear awav the institutions which 



JESUS OR MAMMON? 219 

legalize the oppression of the weak by the power- 
ful, the enslavement of the poor by the rich. 
We are to open wide the gates, smooth the road 
and clear away the encumbrances of the usurer 
and exploiter so that a man may live by the 
sweat of his brow without stealing the wage of 
his neighbor. So that man may love his fellow- 
man without starving his own family. So that 
we may pray for the success of all our fellows 
without dreading that one man's gain is another 
man's loss and that other man may mean our- 
selves. Do you think it wise to make a living 
God appear under necessity of starving one that 
another may be blessed with untold wealth? Did 
"Our Father in Heaven" provide for the grow- 
ing of only one-half enough bread to go around ? 
Or are we countenancing a system which enables 
one man to seize the share of ten so that we may 
build almshouses, prisons and poor relief sta- 
tions for the other nine ? Listen to my cry ! Par- 
don much use of the personal pronoun. It is a 
personal story. My hope is that it is common to 
so many, that it will help answer some of these 
burning questions. Oh, I am sure my appeal is 
not going to be in vain. Though I am without 
wisdom or influence or power, I have love, 
boundless, all prevailing, devouring love. Love 
is God. Will you defy my God ? Will you with- 
stand the power which brought forth and sus- 
tains the universe? Will ye say to Love, "Get 
thee hence ?" Ye cannot resist. Even out of my 
wilderness ye must hear my cry and respond to 
my call. Ye could jeer at logic and refuse to 
reason, but Love ye can neither conquer nor 
ignore. There is no danger. In an age when a 
threat to violate the so-called rights of property 



220 SUPPLEMENT. 

arouses more feeling and louder protests than 
the wanton destruction of thousands of lives, the 
bold proclamation of a rule of love without 
profit must attract interest if not respectful at- 
tention. Is it a wonderful thing that one who 
professes to follow Jesus of Nazareth should feel 
love impelled to help and cheer every living fel- 
low soul? Must not a sincere follower of the 
Great Lover of Children, the originator of the 
religion of the rights of the lowly, and the weak 
be wrung at heart to see innocent childhood sold 
for gain and virtue sacrificed to Mammon? Are 
you surprised that one who drinks of the cup and 
eats of the bread in "remembrance of Him" 
should be in love with all the universe? To me 
this seems natural, but oh it is so hard to be 
consistent! The rich and the poor may worship 
together. They may profess the same love of 
God. The high and the low lift their voices in 
praise and thanksgiving to the good loving 
Father in Heaven and then the rich go out to 
exploit the poor, to defraud the other rich, the 
high to oppress the low, the low to displace the 
higher. Do they associate together, dine and live 
together ? Are they friendly and helpful to each 
other, seeking each other's company and culti- 
vating a close fellowship in preparation for the 
future co-existence which they profess to be 
looking toward in a paradise of Loving bliss? 
Certainly not. They are in constant antagonism. 
The poor want to be rich and the rich want to 
get richer for fear of becoming poorer. Prac- 
tically every Christian strives with all his might 
for gain. Yet Christ taught that material wealth 
was such a bar to entrance into His Kingdom, 
that only the miraculous intervention of God 



JESUS OR MAMMON? 221 

could save a rich man. Did Christ lie when he 
said that? Are we all hypocrites? I tell you 
neither does the Lord's word fail nor are we all 
hypocrites. We are living in a state of chronic 
violence. I speak not of those who scoff at all 
religion. I am not addressing those who openly 
avow themselves devoted to no cult or creed 
save that of self. I am appealing to those who 
would follow the King of Truth and live by the 
gospel of Love. Who will, but cannot? The 
Christ said violence must come but woe to him 
who brings it. I say, w r oe also to him who 
maintains, countenances and fails to exert him- 
self to defeat violence. He is equally guilty with 
him who causes violence. The worst of all vio- 
lence is that which offends against the laudable 
aspirations of youth to follow in the steps of Him 
who said, "Little children love one another!" 
You have to live in a world where man is ar- 
ranged against man. You toil for bread amid 
conditions natural to beasts of prey. You teach 
your children that. "Love is the greatest thing 
in the world." When the child begins to reason 
you show it that money is the indispensable 
thing. Oh i listen to the cry of one who like many 
of you has been faced by the questioning, inno- 
cent "why" of a son or daughter. The Kingdom 
of Heaven is at hand. The harvest is white for 
the cutting. Why stand idle? Why do ye 
linger ? Come forth in the power of His might. 
Come in the name of the King of Truth. Come 
in the name of Love of Humanity. Come for the 
sake of the Martyrs of countless ages who cry 
from the past at the danger of seeing the price- 
less heritage, the fruit of all their sacrifice and 
struggle, lost through our selfishness and indif- 



222 SUPPLEMENT. 

ference. Come for the sake of posterity which 
will surely call us to account ! Brethren, we must 
think and work! We must Thank, Trust and 
Work in Love, without ceasing to make His 
paths straight, to take away the barriers, so that 
generations to come may call us blessed while 
they walk in the paths of righteousness, of love, 
of service one to another without fear. We must 
follow the pointing of the finger which shows 
the better way. We must make possible the 
glorious prophecy that the Lion, the strong, shall 
lie down with the Lamb, the weak, to shelter, 
protect and raise instead of oppress and devour, 
to be loved and trusted instead of hated and 
feared. Ye believe in God? Then ye must be- 
lieve in this. The Christ did not die for a theory 
but for a truth, sublime but most practical. If 
we fail to join in the battle for this truth we 
make of Him a mockery, and the truth for which 
He died will yet prevail in spite of us. Listen 
to one crying in the Wilderness! Make His 
paths straight. The Kingdom of Heaven is at 
hand, take heed when it comes lest ye be found 
among the generations of vipers, hypocrites, chil- 
dren of Mammon. 

You want to know what all this means ? You 
demand something more definite than passionate 
exclamations? You shall have it. At the bot- 
tom of all this wilderness of contradictions and 
inconsistencies of our social fabric there is a 
primal cause. That cause is to be found in the 
desperate effort to cling to a worn out system of 
morals and economic ethics. With our advance 
in the mechanical arts and improvement of the 
means of production, unparalleled in the history 
of the world, the system of law governing the 



JESUS OR MAMMON? 223 

relations of man to man and regulating the award 
and distribution of the said production have re- 
mained practically at a standstill Instead of 
keeping pace with the advance on the one hand 
in the art of production, by adapting the system 
governing the producer to that of the changed 
conditions, we are stubbornly refusing to recog- 
nize that which may have been of social and 
political economy under former conditions have 
become the most damnable lies. Political equal- 
ity has become a dead letter. In place of chattel 
slavery a system of exploitation has sprung into 
existence and shelters itself under a system of 
laws originally intended to guarantee the rights 
of the individual. The result is that the condi- 
tion of the large mass of productive toilers is one 
in which they suffer all the evils of chattel slav- 
ery without any of the mitigating advantages of 
that institution. It is not merely the assertion of 
a fanatical devotee of an ism to say that the fore- 
going statement is a fact. One has only to have 
the very common experience of being compelled 
to seek or hold the employment necessary to 
.earn daily bread for self and dependents, to learn 
how bitterly true it is that those who live by the 
sweat of the brow are the victimized creatures of 
him who holds the purse strings. This being a 
fact, what wonder that the worship of Mammon 
is the only one which enlists serious devotees? 
Time was when a man willing to work could take 
his little kit of tools and go out into the world 
with the assurance that at least a fairly equitable 
portion of what he produced would be his. Nor 
did the worker need dread that for the chance to 
work, to produce, he would have to bargain away 
not only the greater part of his product but even 



224 SUPPLEMENT. 

his personal freedom. Little by little the cunning 
of the workman and even his physical strength 
became less and less a factor of importance in 
production. The introduction of labor-saving 
machinery constantly reduces the percentage cost 
of manual labor and increases that of plant and 
machinery. Now, while it is an undisputable 
fact that labor-saving machinery results in im- 
proving the material condition of the people at 
large, it is equally indisputable that under the 
present system of exploitation it gives the em- 
ploying, the capitalistic element, enormously in- 
creased power. There is no doubt that a large 
percentage of the people, even the wage-working 
people, enjoy material conveniences and even 
luxuries unthought of before the extensive intro- 
duction of labor-saving devices. There is also 
no doubt that the percentage of product retained 
by the producer has suffered great decrease from 
the same cause. This condition leads to so-called 
over production and those periods of industrial 
depression are commonly known as Panics. A 
panic is not the result of over production. Panics 
and hard times are the direct result of a gradual 
withdrawing of the purchasing power from the 
producing masses. As an illustration we will sup- 
pose that, through the improvement in machinery 
a man receiving two dollars per day is able to 
produce ten dollars worth of shoes ; he has added 
to the supply ten dollars worth but is only able 
to purchase two dollars worth. If millions of 
people produce more than they can purchase in 
the same proportion and the residue is absorbed 
by a small non-producing minority, the time must 
come at more or less regular intervals when both 
the product and the purchasing medium will be 



JESUS OR MAMMON? 225 

concentrated, a few hands will possess all, with 
the many impoverished. Then comes the so- 
called slack in the market. Money becomes 
cheap because industries are at a standstill. This 
piling up of produce and idleness of capital is not 
the result of over-production. If there was real 
over-production and just social distribution there 
would be no want and starvation. Want and 
starvation are rampant at times when the prod- 
uct of labor finds no ready market. When cor- 
porations declare the greatest dividends and 
the capitalist talks about prosperity based on 
enormous profits, then a panic is near at hand. 
This must be so because the larger the per- 
centage of profits, the less is the percentage 
of purchasing power left in the hands of tht- 
producer, who is also the consumer. Now,, 
at the bottom of this lies the fact that the in- 
troduction of machinery has compelled the pro- 
ducer to join with many of his fellows in the use 
of expensive equipment which in turn is con- 
trolled by private individuals who have all the 
power of life and death without any of the re- 
sponsibilities to which even the veriest despot of 
a potentate must yield consideration. All of this 
enormous advantage depends on a man's having 
money. It is not wonderful then that men will 
go any length to obtain that which gives them a 
chance to exploit, i. e., eat up their fellows in- 
stead of being eaten and exploited by them ? Yet 
the very fact that the getting of wealth is only a 
choice of dilemmas makes it impossible for the 
possessor of wealth to be happy. No sooner does 
a man accumulate large wealth and proceed to 
use it for the purpose of exploiting his fellows, 
than he in turn becomes the object of universal 



226 SUPPLEMENT. 

attack. To defend himself against the on- 
slaughter and keep possession of his power he 
must brutalize himself (if he has not already 
done so in the getting), and his fear and sus- 
picion of his fellows destroys all chance of hap- 
piness. We see by all this that we have arrived 
at a high stage of productive advancement, but 
that our system of social distribution is entirely 
wanting in serving the best interests of humanity, 
rich and poor alike. The poor are compelled to 
compromise themselves and harden their hearts 
in order to live and even partially respond to the 
claims of those dependent on them. The rich 
likewise must steel themselves against every 
human impulse and choke off every high aspira- 
tion lest they be thrown back among the poor. 
How little chance is offered by such conditions 
to practice the love law of Jesus Christ, those 
who have conscientiously tried to do so, can best 
make answer. If, therefore, conditions are such 
as to make a consistent Christian life a practically 
impossible life, ought not every Christian bestir 
himself to remedy the evil? 

You ask how can this be done? In the first 
place, you and I, dear brother, must clear our 
minds of all prejudice. We must take on a spirit 
of unselfishness. We must look upon things 
through the eyes of earnest, devoted love for the 
truth. We must try to see things and not with- 
out fear as they are, as He saw them and not as 
we have become accustomed to see them. We 
must learn to distinguish between might and 
right. We must learn to look through the laws 
of conventionalities of man and see the law of 
God, of Nature, of Love ! They are one and the 
same. Having done this, what do we see? We 



JESUS OR MAMMON? 22? 

see the law of God made of no effect. We see 
that the advance of civilization has brought with 
it also a great forward stride in the methods of 
Mammon. The very truths upon which all ad- 
vancement is based have been cunningly con- 
strued to blind the masses and make their vic- 
timization easier. The "divine" right of rulers, 
feudal and paternal institutions, chattel slavery 
and all other crude devices of former ages by 
which the few sought to live upon and tyrannize 
the many, have been ripenend and developed into 
the perfectly effective modern Giant Capitalist. 
The sacred ( ?) fetishes of the rights of property, 
usury, capital, have developed into a perfect sys- 
tem of exploitation such as only modern civiliza- 
tion could produce. Under a system of laws 
which seeks to establish the right to get by what- 
ever means is available and which makes sacred 
the right of the getter to keep what he has, re- 
gardless of the common weal, Mammon has 
indeed become King, and to be poor in posses- 
sions is to be worthless of consideration. This 
is, if ye will hear it, the short reign of that Father 
of liars which the Master said must come. The 
cure for this state of affairs, the defeat of this 
Mammon of unrighteousness, the freeing of 
humanity must come through the abolition of 
private ownership of the means of production. 
The means of production must be returned to the 
people. The product of labor must be assured 
to the producer. In other words, if we would 
make material conditions and social environment 
such as to permit of the consistent following out 
of the precepts of the Christ, if w r e would make , 
the natural law of love a possible practice of daily 
life, if we would do away with the present rule 



228 SUPPLEMENT. 

of envy, conflict and Mammon, we must bring 
about the introduction of Socialism. We have 
too long stood aloof; we have been befooled too 
long by those who wrongly think their interests 
at stake, to think that Socialism is a form of 
anarchism, the fruit of abnormal brains equally 
wedded to a destruction of religion, law and 
order. This is far from the truth. If you will 
take the time and trouble to impartially study 
the principles of Socialism and the declarations 
of its authoritative expounders, you will find, as 
I have, that they have an abhorrence of all vio- 
lence. You will be surprised to learn (it is sur- 
iprising that you read the daily papers without 
^earning) that the lawlessness is on the side of 
Mammon, of private ownership, of arrogant co- 
operative power. You will find that the principal 
grievance of the true Socialist is that the law can 
not, under present conditions, be enforced. You 
will also find that the enemies of Socialism, the 
ones who make every effort to misrepresent and 
malign Socialism, recognize no law save self- 
interest. You will find that enemies of Socialism 
are the real anarchists in that they never 
hesitate to violate the law when their interests 
are at stake, while they put forth every effort to 
defeat any popular advancement. For the most 
part you will find that they succeed because 
money is power and they have money. It is true 
that many of the leaders in this new thought are 
of foreign birth and that, owing to the depravel 
ideals with which the word religion and Chris- 
tianity has ever been associated in their native 
lands, they avow themselves as abhorrent of any 
form of institutional religion. In their minHs all 
institutional religion must necessarily stand 



JESUS OR MAMMON? 229 

only for tyranny of the worst sort. But 
if you will look at the principles advocated 
by these men without prejudice you will soon 
see that there is no antagonism in principle 
toward what you and I, under more fortu- 
nate surroundings, recognize as Christianity. 
Even if it were true that up to the present 
this idea had been principally championed by 
those who are not of the household of faith, is 
that a reason why we should refuse to see the 
truth? Did our forefathers refuse political free- 
dom because some of its stoutest and most 
effective advocates gloried in being called in- 
fidels ? Certainly not. Even in our time we have 
seen no good Republican minister of the gospel 
refuse to vote his ticket because the redoubtable 
Bob Ingersol voted the same. It is therefore not 
a question of what other kind of people vote 
and work for Socialism or what they expect to 
gain by its introduction. The fact which we have 
to consider is that Christian ethics and the present 
social and industrial economy are antagonistic 
and at variance. As Christians we must seek 
to change this. Mammon sits enthroned. As 
Christians we want to enthrone Jesus. If Social- 
ism will do this every true Christian must become 
a Socialist. Come see for yourselves. As a 
brother, I say it will. You need not take my 
word. Read, work, love. You will surely come. 
You cannot be neutral. We do not need "Chris- 
tian Socialism/' we need Socialism in order to 
live as Christians should live. Therefore, I know 
it will come because I believe in Jesus. Now it 
is: Jesus or Mammon. Jesus is bound to win. 
When He wins do you want to come with Jesus 
into power through Socialism or with Mammon 



23O SUPPLEMENT. 

dethroned, in spite of Capitalism? You must 
decide, my brother. Whatever you decide do it 
quickly* Time is precious for both sides. Jesus 
or Mammon? 



THE PASSING OF CAPITALISM 

AND 

THE MISSION OF SOCIALISM 

By ISADOR LADOFF. 



Throughout its thirty-four chapters "The Passing of 
Capitalism" is a masterly arraignment of the capitalist 
system and an analysis of capitalist society in language 
at once trenchant and captivating. — Social Democratic 
Herald. 

A book of profound philosophic thought and great 
erudition. — Revue Socialiste. 

Comrade Ladoff's work is the first that has appeared 
in America championing Bernstein's theories, and has 
met with the same disapproval that greeted Bernstein. 
* * * Thirty-five chapters are contained in the book, 
of such a diverse nature, though all deal with the sub- 
ject of Socialism, that it is impossible to give a com- 
prehensive review of the book in the small space at our 
command and do it justice. The best that we can do 
is to recommend it to our readers with the assurance 
that a careful study of it will well repay for their time. 
— James Oneal, in The Toiler. 

Cloth, 160 pages, 50 cents; paper, 25 cents. By special 
arrangement with the Standard Publishing Com- 
pany, we are enabled to supply this book to our 
stockholders on the same terms as our own pub- 
lications. 

CHARLES H. KERR & COMPANY (Co-operative), 
56 Fifth Avenue, Chicago. 



MAR SO J904 



